Starting a Zoom Meeting

  1. 1

    Download Zoom and sign in

    Download Zoom from zoom.us (free account available). Sign in. A free account allows meetings of up to 100 participants with a 40-minute limit. Paid plans remove the time limit.

  2. 2

    Start an instant meeting or schedule one

    Instant meeting: Click New Meeting (orange button). Your meeting starts immediately. Click Participants → Invite to share the meeting link or send invitations. Scheduled meeting: Click Schedule. Set the date, time and duration. Add a description. Click Save — Zoom opens your calendar to create the event with the meeting link included. Share the link with participants.

Key Host Controls During the Meeting

  • Manage participants: Click Participants to see everyone. Hover over a name to mute, unmute, rename or remove them. Mute All for large meetings.
  • Waiting Room: Enable in Settings to hold participants in a virtual waiting room before admitting them — gives you control over who enters. Admit individually or all at once.
  • Screen sharing: Click Share Screen → select which window or your entire desktop. Press Stop Share when done.
  • Record: Click Record → Record on this Computer. The recording saves to your device after the meeting ends. Cloud recording is available on paid plans.
  • Chat: Click Chat to open the chat panel. You can send messages to everyone or specific participants, and share files.
  • End meeting: Click End → End Meeting for All (removes everyone) or Leave Meeting (appoints another host).

Before the Meeting: Setup Tips

  • Test audio and video: click Settings (gear icon) → Audio and Video tabs
  • Enable waiting room in Settings → Security
  • Set a meeting password for sensitive meetings
  • Use a wired ethernet connection if possible for stable audio and video
  • Position camera at eye level — looking down at a laptop camera is unflattering and less professional
The 40-minute limit on free accountsZoom’s free tier cuts meetings after 40 minutes. Workaround: start a new meeting immediately after the first ends and reshare the link. All participants can rejoin. Not elegant but effective for longer meetings without a paid subscription. Google Meet (free, no time limit for meetings under 100 people) is a good alternative for longer meetings.

Frequently Asked Questions

By default, only the host can share their screen. To allow participants to share: click the arrow next to Share Screen → Advanced Sharing Options → change “Who can share?” to All Participants. Alternatively, make the participant a Co-Host (Participants → hover over name → More → Make Co-Host) which gives them most host controls including screen sharing.
In your Zoom account settings at zoom.us/profile/setting: go to Schedule Meeting → enable “Mute participants upon entry.” This mutes all participants automatically when they join. You can also enable this per-meeting in the scheduling window under Advanced Options. During a meeting: Participants → Mute All. You can uncheck “Allow participants to unmute themselves” for presentations or webinars where you want to control who speaks.