To access settings in the Zoom desktop client:

1. Sign in to the Zoom desktop client.
2. Click your profile picture then click Settings.
   
   This will open the settings window, giving you access to the following options:
   

General

Change general settings for meetings and chat.

• Start Zoom when I start Windows: Open and display the Zoom client when Windows starts.
  • Silently start Zoom when I start Windows: Open the Zoom client when Windows start, but keep it minimized in the taskbar.
• When closed, minimize window to notification area instead of the task bar: Keep Zoom open in the taskbar notifications area when you close Zoom.
• Use dual monitors: Place screen share content and video on separate screens while in a meeting. 
• Enter full screen automatically when starting or joining a meeting
• Automatically copy invite link once the meeting starts
• Always show meeting controls: Make the meeting controls visible at all times. If disabled, meeting controls will hide if your mouse pointer is inactive for a few seconds.
• Ask me to confirm when I leave a meeting: Display a prompt to confirm if you want to leave the meeting after clicking Leave Meeting.
• Show meeting timers: Display the total time you have been in the current meeting, or the time remaining for scheduled meetings. 
• Remind me __ minutes before my upcoming meetings: Display a notification at the specified time before your meetings start.
• Stop my video and audio when my device is locked
• Remind me about upcoming events: Show notifications before your meetings and events without an attached meeting.
  • Click the dropdown to set notification time intervals to receive more notifications for your events and meetings.
• Integrate Zoom with Outlook: Show Zoom contact status, and set Zoom as default chat, meeting and phone app in Outlook. 
• Show user profile icon next to in-meeting chat messages: Displays the participants’ profile photos in in-meeting chat. If no image is available for a participant, the participant’s initials appear.
• Show "Pair with Room" feature on home screen navigation bar
• Automatically keep Zoom desktop client up to date: Allows the Zoom desktop app to download and install updates. Users can choose between 2 update cadences: Slow and Fast. Learn more about automatic updates. 
• Zoom Assistant: Controls the visibility of a compact desktop panel, allowing phone users to quickly find their contacts, access and manage speed dial, make and receive calls, and transfer calls. 
  • Phone: Select the checkbox to enable Zoom Assistant for Phone. 
• Theme: Choose between Light and Dark themes desktop client.
• Navigation: Reorder the arrangement of product tabs along the top of the desktop client. Each tab can be dragged-and-dropped to reorder and prioritize the Zoom products you use. Click the Reset to default to revert changes back. 
• Reactions - Skin tone: Select the default skin tone when using chat emoticons and meeting reactions.
• Activate the following emojis based on hand gesture recognition: Use Gesture Recognition to detect and enable certain reactions. 
• Display your reactions above toolbar: Display your selected reactions to appear above the toolbar in the meeting. 
• Activity Center: Click Manage Notifications to adjust which notifications are triggered by the Zoom Activity Center.
• View More Settings: Open the Zoom web portal to adjust settings not available in the Zoom client.

Video

View your video feed and change your camera.

Camera

• Camera: Select the camera you want Zoom to use.
• Video ratio: Select Original Ratio (usually a 4:3 aspect ratio) or HD (usually 16:9 aspect ratio) 

My Video

• Mirror my video: Horizontally flip your video. This option is useful if your camera flips your video by default.
• Touch up my appearance: Apply a softening effect to skin to minimize the visibility of imperfections. 
• Adjust for low light: Improves video brightness and quality in low light surroundings. 
  
  
• Always display participant names on their video: Display participant's name overlaid on their video.
• Turn off my video when joining a meeting: Automatically disable your video when joining a meeting.
• Always show video preview dialog when joining a video meeting
• Hide non-video participants: Hide participants' thumbnails if they don't have video enabled. Thumbnails for non-video participants display their name.
• Hide Self View: Hide your own video feed when in a meeting or webinar. This can also be controlled during a live session through the View menu. 
• Enable stop incoming video feature: Provides the in-meeting option to stop all incoming video. 
• See myself as the active speaker while speaking: Place your video as the primary active speaker on your own screen when you speak. 
• Maximum participants displayed per screen in Gallery View: Choose between 25 participants or 49 participants (if supported by your device).
• Advanced: View advanced video settings.

Audio

Set your microphone and speaker, test them, adjust their volume, and change other settings.

• Speaker: Click Test Speaker to play a test tone. Click the drop-down menu to select the speaker you want Zoom to use, and adjust the volume slider as needed to control volume levels.
  • Use separate audio device to play ringtone simultaneously: Select another device that will play the ringtone when you are invited to a Zoom meeting or receive a Zoom Phone call. This device will ring simultaneously with your selected speaker.
• Microphone: Click Test Mic to record audio and play it back. Click the drop-down to select the mic you want Zoom to use.
  • Automatically adjust microphone: Automatically make your microphone softer or louder as needed to normalize the volume and make it easier for other participants to hear you. If you are having issues with your audio fading in and out, you may want to turn this setting off.
  • Use specific audio input channels: When 2 or more audio channels are available for an audio input, users can select and manage multiple inputs coming from that source. If multiple channels are not detected, this option will not appear. 
• Audio Profile
  • Zoom optimized audio: Recommended for most uses, this audio profile provides standard background noise suppression, which can be adjusted below: 
    • Background noise suppression Choose between Auto, Low, Medium, and High levels of noise suppression. 
  • Original sound for musicians: Adds an in-meeting button to disable noise suppression and echo cancellation, while increasing codec quality or encoding in stereo.  
    
    • High-fidelity music mode: This disables echo cancellation & post-processing, while raising audio codec quality to 48Khz, 96Kbps mono/192kbps stereo. Professional audio interface, microphone, and headphones required.
    • Echo cancellation: Prevents the creation of echoes between mic and speakers. Disable only recommended when using headphones to isolate audio or when playing instruments.
    • Stereo audio: Encodes mic audio in stereo. Requires a stereo-capable microphone or audio interface.
  • Live performance audio: Further reduces latency for audio to ~30-50ms. 
• Ringtones: Select the audio volume and ringtone for incoming meeting invites, Zoom Phone calls, Zoom Contact Center inbound engagements, and even set specific ringtones for individual contacts. This setting doesn't sync with the identical mobile app setting.
• Automatically join audio by computer when joining a meeting: Automatically join meetings with computer audio, instead of displaying a prompt to join.
• Mute my microphone when joining a meeting
• Do not prompt joining audio when I join a meeting using 3rd party audio
• Press and hold SPACE key to temporarily unmute yourself: If you are muted in a meeting, this allows you to unmute by pressing and holding the SPACE bar.
• Sync buttons on headset: Allows the mute/mute function to be synced from your audio device to the Zoom desktop client. In other words, if you mute or unmute using a button on your audio device, the Zoom client will show your mic is muted or unmuted. Only enable this setting if you using a supported audio device.
• Advanced: View advanced audio settings.

 Share Screen

Change settings related to screen sharing.

• Window size when screen sharing: Choose how you would like the meeting window to change when viewing shared content, Fullscreen mode, Maximize window, or Maintain current size.
• Scale to fit shared content to Zoom window: Automatically scale the shared screen to fit the size of the Zoom window.
• Show my Zoom windows to other participants when I am screen sharing: Display the Zoom client to other participants when you share your screen. By default, the Zoom client is hidden when you share your screen. The Show Zoom windows during screen share option on the Settings page in the web portal must be enabled before this will appear in the client. 
• Enable the remote control of all applications: Allow other participants to remotely control all applications during a remote control session.
• Side-by-side mode: Display the shared screen and participants' video side by side.
• Silence system notifications when sharing desktop: Temporarily disable all notifications to prevent distractions and interruptions during presentations. 
• Share applications: 
  • Share an individual window: Just share the selected window of the application. 
  • Share all windows from an application: Share all open windows of that application. 
• When I share my screen in a meeting: Choose the default behavior when sharing.  
  • Automatically share desktop
  • Show all sharing options
• When I share directly to a Zoom Room: Choose the default behavior when sharing to a Zoom Room.   
  
  • Automatically share desktop
  • Show all sharing options
• Advanced: View advanced screen sharing settings.

 Phone

Displays information relating to Zoom Phone if you have a Zoom Phone license.

Team Chat

Change settings related to Zoom Team Chat channel and message notifications.

Show at the top of my sidebar

Select the check box next to each option you want displayed at the top of the left sidebar. 

• Missed Calls: Lists any missed calls to join a video meeting. 
• Contact Requests: Lists any pending and recent contact requests. 
• Bookmarks: Lists any bookmarked messages.
• Reminders: Lists any messages you've set up reminders for.
• Files: Displays all files you have sent, including documents and screenshots.
• Get Started: Displays a how-to tutorial for getting started with Team Chat.

Customize the behavior of my sidebar

• Keep only one section open at a time: When selected, only one section of chats and channels can be open at a time, closing all others when a new one is opened. Sections include folders, recents, chats, and channels. 
• Organize by section: When selected, chats and channels not assigned to a folder or the Starred section are organized into separate folders for chats (group chats and one-one-one chats), channels, meeting chats, and Huddle channels. When unchecked, unassigned chats and channels will be listed chronologically under a combined Recents section. 
• Show Profile Photos next to Direct Messages: When selected, users profile pictures are displayed next to their messages. If no profile picture is provided, then their initials are used instead. 

Customize the look of my sidebar

Choose to customize the background color of the left sidebar in the Team Chat tab to a Dark or Light theme. 

Other Settings

• Show link preview: Insert a link preview with the page title, preview image, and description whenever your message contains a link.
• Change my status to "Away" when I am inactive for ___ minutes: Change your status to Away if your computer is inactive for the specified amount of minutes.
• Blocked users: Click Manage blocked users to view contacts you have blocked and remove them from the blocked list.

 Unread Messages

• Keep all unread messages on top: Keep chats with unread messages to the top of your chats list.
• Show unread message badge () for channels: Display the number of unread messages beside each chat.
• Move messages with new replies to the bottom of the chat
• When viewing unread messages in a channel: 
  • Start at the first unread
  • Start at the latest
    
    
• Notifications: Select what you want to receive notifications for.
  • All Messages
  • Direct Messages, Mentions, and Replies: Show notifications for private 1-on-1 chats, any time someone uses @(your name) in any channel (group chat), or replies to a thread you're on.
  • Off
  • Except: Set exceptions if you want specific channels to have different notification settings than the one your set above.
• Keyword and Contacts Notifications: Set keywords and contacts you want to receive notifications for.

Sound and Behavior

• Play sound when I receive a new message: Audio notifications are played for messages. 
• Show message preview (uncheck this option for privacy): Message contents partially shown in desktop notifications. 
• Do not disturb from __ to __ :  Set the time period when you do not want to receive notifications.
• Mute chat notifications while I am in a meeting or internal call: Zoom notifications are temporarily paused when in a Zoom meeting or call. 
• Open chats in a new window when selecting a push notification
• Show notification banner on screen until dismissed

Zoom Apps

• On meeting start, open selected Zoom Apps for me: Select up to 5 installed Zoom Apps that are automatically opened when you start a meeting. 
• On meeting end, keep meeting apps open for me: Check to keep apps opened during the meeting open for continued use. 
• Zoom Apps Local App Data & Cookies: Some Zoom Apps may store data and cookies locally on the device, which can be cleared by you. Click Clear to remove any currently stored Zoom Apps data or cookies. 

Background & Effects

You can select a virtual background, select the color of the background (green screen) behind you, and upload a virtual background image. You can also apply video enhancements such as video filters, studio effects, and avatars to your video appearance.

Note: The Avatars, Studio Effects, and Video Filters features may not be available for all regions and account types. If you do not see a specific feature, you may not have access to use it.

 Recording

Select the location for your local recordings and view how much cloud recording space you have and how much is in use.

• Store my recording at: Choose the default location to save recording files.
  Note: Setting the default location to a cloud syncing folder (such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or One Drive), an external drive, or network storage device may cause issues with saving and converting the local recording. Zoom strongly recommends keeping the default location on a local drive for recordings.
• Choose a location for recorded files when the meeting ends: When a recorded meeting ends, display a prompt asking where to save the recording files. If this is not enabled, recording files will be saved in the default location.
• Record a separate audio file of each participant: Creates separate audio files for each participant, instead of one audio file with all participants' audio.
• Display participants' names in the recording: Captures the display names of each participant in the local recording. Their display names are captured as part of their video tile, just as seen in the meeting or webinar. 
• Optimize for 3rd party video editor: Ensure that the recording file is compatible with video editing software.
• Add a timestamp to the recording: Embed the date and time while recording the meeting.
• Record video during screen sharing: Continue to record participant's video during screen share sessions.
  • Place video next to the shared screen in the recording: When recording locally during a screen share sessions, place participants' video and shared screen side-by-side in the recording.
• Keep temporary recording files: Keep the original files to help Zoom troubleshoot when there is a problem with the recording.
• Cloud Recording: View the amount of cloud recording storage you have used. Click Manage to view a list of your recordings in the Zoom web portal.
• Show notification when a new recording is available

Profile

• Edit My Profile: Open the Zoom web portal to change personal information like you profile picture and name.
• View My Subscription: Open the Zoom web portal and display your current paid plan and options to change it.
• View Advanced Features: Open the Zoom web portal to adjust settings not available in the client.
• Devices you're signed in to: Shows all the devices your account is signed in to. 
• Sign Me Out Of All Devices 

 Statistics

Shows how much CPU and memory Zoom is currently using. If you are in a meeting, it will show data like latency and jitter so you can evaluate your audio and video quality. If having problems with the Zoom desktop client, you can also submit problem reports with logs to Zoom Support. 

 Keyboard Shortcuts 

Displays keyboard shortcuts you can use with Zoom. Click Restore Defaults to revert any changes to shortcuts. 

Accessibility

You can change the font size for closed captioning and chat.

• Closed Captioning: 
  • Font Size: Click and drag slider to make closed captions font size smaller or larger.
  • Caption color: Choose from five preset colors, or click the color wheel to set a specific color, which will be used when displaying manual or automated captions. 
  • Translation color: Choose from five preset colors, or click the color wheel to set a specific color, which will be used when displaying translated captions. 
• Always show captions: Click to automatically show captions, when the host has captioning enabled. 
• Chat Display Size: Adjust the font size for in-meeting chats and on Team Chat. 
• Dim Screen Share Video: Select the check box to automatically dim video when flashing images or visual patterns are detected in a meeting or webinar.
• Screen Reader Alerts: Enable or disable screen reader alerts.