Setting Up Zoom

Before joining a Zoom meeting for the first time you will need to install the Zoom app and set up an account. You can do this on a desktop computer (PC or Mac), on a smart phone, or on a tablet. The steps below show this process on a Windows 10 computer. Things will look a little different if you are on a different device, but the basic steps will be the same.

1) Go to a Zoom meeting URL

When a Zoom service or meeting has been scheduled, you will receive an invitation e-mail that looks something like this:

To get started, click the link the link that looks like the one below “Join Zoom Meeting”. You can also type the URL (“https://us02web.zoom.us/j/95723456781”, in this example) into your web browser’s address bar.

2) Download and run the Zoom installer

After you click the invitation link or enter the URL, your web browser should open a page that looks something like this:

You should first click on the “Download Now” link, then wait for the installer to download, and finally run the downloaded installer. The last two parts of this (waiting for the download and running the installer) look a little different depending on which web browser you are using. If you are using Google’s Chrome browser, it will look like the image above. If you are using Microsoft’s Edge browser, the steps look very similar:

Chrome and Edge users can skip to (3), below.

If you are using the Firefox browser then there’s an extra step. When you click the “Download Now” link, you will probably see a window pop up asking for confirmation. Click “Save File” on this window:

Firefox will show the download progress in a little icon with a downward-pointing arrow near the top of the window. When it has finished downloading, it will pop up a window showing the download. If this disappears, you can click on the download icon again to re-open it. Then click on the “Zoom_…._.exe” item in the download list to open the installer:

3) Run the Zoom installer

Once you’ve opened the downloaded installer from your web browser, you should see a window that says “Installing Zoom…”:

At some point you will likely see a request for permission to install. Click “Yes” on this window:

4) Set up a Zoom account

Some Zoom meetings only require that you have a meeting passcode to get in. Others, however, require that you log in with a (free) Zoom account. If you see a window that looks like this, then the meeting requires a Zoom account:

Click the “Sign in to join” button. The next window you see will look like this:

If you’ve previously set up a Zoom account, you can enter the email address and password for that account in the “Enter your email” or “Enter your password” fields. If you have a Google account (e.g., for gmail or YouTube) or a Facebook account, you can use one of those to sign in by clicking “Sign in with Google” or “Sign in with Facebook”. Otherwise (or if you’d simply prefer to have a completely separate password for Zoom) click the “Sign Up Free” link at the bottom of the window. This will pop your web browser back to the front and walk you through the sign-up steps. The first step asks for your date of birth. Pick the month/day/year, then click “Continue”:

On the next screen, enter your email address and click “Sign Up”:

After this, you may have to answer questions or identify pictures to prove that you are a human and not a machine. These tests will vary, but will often look something like this:

You may have to answer several of these.

5) Confirm your email address and set up your password

Zoom will next send an email to the address that you entered, with a subject line similar to “Please activate your Zoom account”. It may take a few minutes for this email to arrive. (Check your Spam or Junk mail folder, just in case, if you don’t get the email within a few minutes.) Click on the “ACTIVATE ACCOUNT” button in the email:

This will take you back to your web browser to continue the sign-up process. The next step is to enter your name and choose a password. You should pick a password that you do not use on any other web site:

Click “Continue”. The site will present you with two more steps (“Invite Colleagues” and “Test Meeting”) but you can skip/ignore these. You’re all set!

At this point, the easiest way to get into the meeting is to go back to the original invitation email (from step 1, above) and click the link again. See the “Joining a Zoom Meeting” page for detailed instructions.