3

For some time my daughter has been using my computer and when she returned it, I found something called "Meet Now" in form of icon in the tray bar (next to clock):

enter image description here

What is it? Is this an local client of Google Meet service? Or something else?

How can I get rid of it (I mean uninstalling, not just removing from tray bar)? I don't see any option for a regular way of uninstalling this program:

  • There is no "Meet Now" item in new Settings section of Add/Remove Programs
  • There is no "Meet Now" item in old Control Panel applet / list of Add/Remove Programs
  • My Windows 10 finds nothing when I open Start menu and type Meet (no program, no file and no search result).

There is also no option for uninstallation in the icon's menu itself.

Improve this question
1
  • 2
    "What is it?" Just more Windows spam garbage.
    – GManNickG
    Commented Apr 29, 2021 at 17:24

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
4

Martin Brinkman gives a full explanation of what it is and how to remove it on his website here.

Here's a copy/paste for archive purposes, the website itself might be easier on your eyes.

How to remove the Meet Now icon on Windows 10 Meet Now is useful to a subset of users. If you don't plan to use it, you may want to remove it from the taskbar as it takes up space without providing anything of use to you.

Multiple options are available to remove Meet Now from the system. One of the easier options involves right-clicking on the Meet Now icon and selecting "hide" from the context menu that opens. Doing so removes the Meet Now icon from the Windows 10 taskbar.

Another option that you have is to open the Settings application on the system, e.g. by using the shortcut Windows-I, or by selecting Start > Settings, going to Personalization > Taskbar, selecting "turn system icons on or off", and toggling "Meet Now" on the page that opens to off. You may restore Meet Now at anytime using the Settings app, but need to make sure the feature is set to on this time.

Removing Meet Now via the Group Policy System administrators may disable (or enable) the Meet Now icon on the Windows 10 taskbar using the Group Policy. The Group Policy is only available in professional editions of Windows 10, and not in Windows 10 Home.

Here is how that is done:

You need elevated rights to use the Group Policy. Use Windows-R to open the runbox. Type gpedit.msc and select OK. Go to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar Double-click on "Remove the Meet Now icon". Set the feature to "Enabled" to hide the icon on the taskbar of the Windows 10 operating system. Restart the PC. Removing Meet Now using the Registry You may also remove Meet Now on Windows 10 using the Registry.

Use Windows-R to open the runbox. Type regedit.exe and select OK. For individual users, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer Right-click on Explorer and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value. Name it HideSCAMeetNow. Set its value to 1. For all users, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer Right-click on Explorer and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value. Name it HideSCAMeetNow. Set its value to 1. Restart the PC.

Improve this answer
5
  • 1
    Please read How to reference material written by others. You must block quote text that has been written by some else.
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Commented Dec 3, 2020 at 21:50
  • 1
    Thanks D. Do you have an online list of links such as the one you provided? I am happy to respond and point someone to the answer they need but if I have to spend a much larger amount of time looking up this kind of information in order to insure that my response meets everyones expectations then I am less likely to want to bother with answering in the first place. a list of links pointing to all of these different requirements would save me a lot of time. thanks again.
    – Larryc
    Commented Dec 4, 2020 at 3:39
  • Read the help centre articles
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Commented Dec 4, 2020 at 8:37
  • 1
    Do I understand correctly that this Meet Now icon thing is just a shortcut to an ad for a Microsoft product, and nothing is actually installed by it? Other searches from google suggest that this is an ad for a skype service, but I just want to make sure.
    – user13267
    Commented Dec 30, 2020 at 2:41
  • 2
    "Meet Now" is Microsoft's answer to Zoom. Zoom is the product that everyone is using for meetings since Covid-19 showed up. Meet Now is installed and remains installed even after this procedure described above. All you are really doing is removing the icon that links to it. Removing Skype would probably remove Meet Now, but I haven't researched it enough to know that for sure. Skype requires a Microsoft login and PW for all participants. Zoom does not. So in order to compete with Zoom, Meet Now was created.
    – Larryc
    Commented Dec 31, 2020 at 21:22

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .