How to Disable Windows Meet Now
Did a Meet Now icon suddenly appear on your Windows 10 desktop following a recent update? Are you looking to disable Meet Now on Windows 10? If yes, the you have come to the right place. We decided to write this article after receiving inquiries about the Meet Now icon. To be fair, it’s not such a big deal. But we have heard people describe it as Spyware. Mostly, it has to do with people being used to their working environments. Any changes will be treated with suspicion. But that is beside the point. This article has the following sections;
What is Meet Now?
Meet now is a remote calling and conferencing tool that’s part of Windows 10. It’s actually a part of Skype. However, you don’t need to have Skype installed on your computer to use Meet Now. Meet Now appears to be Microsoft’s answer to Zoom and the popularity of online video calls and conferencing. It’s an attempt to make it easier for people join video calls.
The Meet Now Icon
Meet Now has been a part of Skype since October 2020. But most people only became aware of it after an update. Then an icon appeared on the Taskbar as you can see in the above screenshot. That’s what has gotten most people worried.
It\’s simply something that wasn’t there before, and for some people, that’s enough to be annoying. The good news is that you can disable, or remove Meet Now from your Windows 10 computer.
How to Hide Meet Now on Windows 10
To disable Meet Now from a Windows 10 computer, you need to take the following steps;
- First, you need to right click on an empty space on the Taskbar and click on Taskbar Settings.
- Next, scroll down to Notification area and click on Select which icons appear on the taskbar.
- Make sure that Always show all icons in the notification area is on the Off, position.
- Finally, toggle the button in front of Meet Now to the Off Position.
- The Meet Now button will immediately be removed form your taskbar.
How to Uninstall Meet Now on Windows 10
Unfortunately, Meet Now cannot be uninstalled from Windows 10. You can only hide the icon, but the program will remain on your PC. Meet Now is part of Skype, as already noted. However, it will still work even if you do not have Skype on your computer.
Some people have suggested uninstalling Skype as a way of removing Meet Now from their PCs. However, that will not work. Though a part of Skype, in that it functions based on calls that are initiated from Skye, Meet Now does not need Skype to function. You can still join video calls even if you don’t have Skype on your computer.
Should I be bothered?
Well, we all have different temperaments. When I first noticed the Meet Now icon in my taskbar, I wondered what it was all about. The next thing that I sought to do, since I never use Skype, was to remove the icon. That’s how this article was born.
Some people went a step further by lambasting Microsoft for foisting “Spyware,” on them. However, in our view, that’s a rather drastic description. Meet Now is not Spyware. It’s not even bad. Leave it on your Taskbar, and you probably won’t notice that it’s there after a few hours.
Anyway, you may encounter problems while updating your Windows 10 computer. The following is the solution to the Windows 10 update stuck problem.