“Meet Now” In The System Tray

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Suddenly today I got a “Meet Now” icon which just popped-up out of the Blue in my system tray. It seems to be related to Skype but I went into the Skype app and turned-off everything I could find, but there was nothing that specifically referenced “Meet Now”. It has an option to “Hide” it but I want to turn it off altogether, i.e. I don’t want (or need) it running as a “service” in the background, hidden or otherwise, dragging my scarce system resources down. Information about it seems to be a bit sketchy at this point and I’ve even checked everywhere I can think of in the Task Manager and cannot find any reference to it running. What is it, specifically and more importantly, how the Heck do I turn it off?

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You can’t uninstall it.

https://allthings.how/how-to-disable-or-remove-meet-now-in-windows-10-taskbar/

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CADesertRat, Travasaurus

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[Alex5723]

The optional KB4580364 preview added Meet Now.

Introducing Meet Now in the Windows 10 Taskbar

Earlier this year we introduced Meet Now in Skype. Meet Now makes it easy to connect with anyone in as little as two clicks for free and each call can last up to 24 hours. Today, we’re excited to share that we will be extending this capability in Windows 10 by bringing Meet Now right to the taskbar. In the coming weeks, you will be able to easily set up a video call and reach friends and family in an instant by clicking the Meet Now icon in the taskbar notification area. No sign ups or downloads needed.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Alex5723.

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mdwpsyd, Travasaurus

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You’d think they’d at least provide a way to disable it, if you weren’t going to use it. Merely “hiding” it does not keep if from using system resources. Sounds like another “feature” that Microsoft has forced upon us. I wonder if you uninstall Skype if it would go away?

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mdwpsyd

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I don’t have Skype installed and I still got the icon. Absolute junk.

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mdwpsyd

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Have you confirmed Windows hasn’t installed Skype in the background, such as in Reliability History?
(It’s surprising what unwanted apps shows up in there, that you had no option to not install…)

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mdwpsyd

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Skype has been part & parcel of Windows 10 as long as I can remember. It seems to be built into the operating system…

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Correct. That’s why it seemed odd our anon friend’s post above referred to not having it installed…

From @pkcano’s link:

There is no possibility to uninstall as of yet. Microsoft integrated Meet Now in Windows 10 as a new feature that cannot be uninstalled.

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Travasaurus

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Unless it both installs without my knowing (which admittedly is plausible) AND isn’t called Skype, I don’t have it. A deep search found no .exe or .dll files even remotely called skype.
Oh well.. xD

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I suspect (but don’t know for sure) that Skype is now just another “Metro app” (or Universal Windows Platform app) which essentially runs as a “service” and may not have an “executable” in the classic sense of the word.  If I’m off the mark here I’m sure somebody will correct me in short order…

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I don’t have skype, no desire to have skype, so should not have any oart of skype instlled. I don’t want this meet now app. and definitely don’t want it to randomly pop yp a notification asking me to make a call. If I want to call someone, I will pick up a phone and call them. I don’t have a camera installed on my PC, so why would I want a video calling app.

I want to uninstall it, but can’t. Why not?

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See #2308167 above.

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Win 10 20H. Just noticed the “Meet Now” icon today. Without researching, I right clicked and hid the “Meet Now” icon in the system tray. After reading this article, decided to try out the feature. But the hide choice seemed to be make “Meet Now” really gone. I cannot locate “Meet Now” anywhere on my PC now.

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Did you read the link @pkcano shared above? Taskbar settings may be your option.

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Travasaurus, Sueska

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Yes thanks Kirsty,  I read the article pkcano shared above, but sadly not until “after” I right clicked and hid the “Meet Now” icon. When I hid the icon  I had not yet found this post and assumed I could easily get “Meet Now” back if needed. According to the article pkcano linked, I should have gone into taskbar settings and turned “Meet Now” off so that it does not show up in the notification area and then back on later if wanted. However, since I immediately hid the icon, it is not present at all in the taskbar settings or anywhere on my pc. Weird.

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Kirsty

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Sueska wrote:

However, since I immediately hid the icon, it is not present at all in the taskbar settings or anywhere on my pc. Weird.

Try Settings, Personalization, Taskbar, Notification area, Turn system icons on or off (immediately below Select which icons appear on the taskbar), where Meet Now should be at the bottom of the list:

How to Add or Remove Meet Now icon on Taskbar in Windows 10

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Travasaurus, Tom-R, Sueska, Kirsty

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Thank you b! It was there and I was able to turn it back on.

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b

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Travasaurus wrote:

Skype has been part & parcel of Windows 10 as long as I can remember. It seems to be built into the operating system…

I don’t have Skype installed (removed all store apps) and no ‘Meet Now’ (20H2).

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Which build?

Meet Now was only installed with CU 19042.630 a week ago (or preview 19042.610 three weeks ago): Introducing Meet Now in the Windows 10 Taskbar

If you don’t have Skype installed on your computer, we will open Skype for you on the web.

What is Meet Now and how do I use it in Skype?

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Kirsty

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b wrote:

Which build?

19042.630

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I have a client system I’m working on that I did a clean install of 64 bit Windows 10 Pro 2004 installed back in late June.

I’m still waiting for the client to get time for the system to be set up, so it’s been sitting around my place since then.

I’d put on several monthly cumulative updates so it would be ready to deliver when the client got organized.

The October 29th “preview” update (KB4580364) was never installed on this system.

So in late October, I “upgraded” it to 20H2, then a few days ago, I installed the November cumulative update, KB4586781 which puts the system on Build 19042.630.

This system is about as “stock” a system can be, has basically no user programs installed yet.

As of today, I see no “Meet Now” icon, or that app listed in System Icons in the Task Bar Notification area of the Task Bar. Also, I can’t find any background process that I can identify (using the Sysinternals Process Explorer) as being connected to a “Meet Now” process. The Skype app is installed, but is not actively running.

However, running a search of the Registry using Registry Editor for “Meet Now”, there are lots of entries (I didn’t bother to count them) found for that string, and quite a few of them are shown as connected to Skype.

I have no idea of when those registry entries might have been made, as I had no reason to search for “Meet Now” until this thread was started.

I’m guessing if the OP used one of a number of “App uninstallers” to remove Skype (if he’s not using it, or never plans to), that would probably kill off the “Meet Now” icon, and the connections to Skype.

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I am running version 1909  build 18363.1198 and I just received the Meet Now Icon yesterday after a cold boot up that morning.

Never had anything to do with Skype – never tried it, never installed anything about it.

Nothing showing as anything installed or in the Reliability History area.

Checked my registry which shows 8 entries in various places which all reference “Meet Now Flyout”.

Windows 10 Pro x64 v22H2 and Windows 7 Pro SP1 x64 (RIP)

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See #2308167 above.

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I got the “Meet Now” icon on my taskbar for the first time today. I just did a right click on it and clicked Hide. Now if I can only get rid of the Microsoft Rewards button on the Settings menu header. I don’t have and have never had a Microsoft account but yet I have Rewards awaiting me…please stop forcing this ridiculous junk Microsoft!

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In case any posters in this thread missed it in Susan Bradley’s ComputerWorld article here:

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3602249/the-end-of-the-year-patching-all-clear.html

Down the page aways is a mention of the “Meet Now” icon and what’s up with it.

Then there’s a link to an article on HowToGeek.com with further explanations on how to deal with it:

https://www.howtogeek.com/704215/how-to-hide-or-disable-meet-now-in-windows-10/

I’m just hiding it on any client’s systems I see it on after asking them if they ever uses Skype.

 

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