PDQ Library:  Join a Zoom Meeting Fast

Create a Windows Shortcut to Join a Zoom meeting without opening your Browser

When you are provided a link to join a Zoom meeting room, it will look similar to this: https://zoom.us/j/999999999?pwd=NknUqNWtwZz09

https will open your default web browser first, then opens your Zoom app if it's installed (or prompt you to download it if it isn't). Then join the Meeting with the supplied link which may contain the Meeting ID and Passcode.

If you already have the Zoom app installed on your Windows computer, then zoommtg (or zoomus) should be registered as a valid protocol in your system. This allows you to open Zoom directly to join (or start) a meeting automatically, without opening your browser - much faster! Just create a shortcut starting with zoommtg and containing the Meeting ID and Passcode and it will open the Zoom app and join the meeting automatically.

  1. Run Explorer, enter the following text in the address bar, then press the Enter key.
    %appdata%\Zoom\Bin
  2. Scroll down the files in that folder to find the Zoom.exe application.
  3. Right click on Zoom.exe and drag it to your desktop, then select "Create Shortcuts here".
  4. Now right click on the shortcut and choose Properties. The "Target" will contain something like this:
    C:\Users\{USERID}\AppData\Roaming\Zoom\bin\Zoom.exe
  5. Scroll to the end of the “Target” value, insert a SPACE, then paste this text at the end:
    --url=zoommtg://zoom.us/join?confno={MEETINGID}
  6. This shorter form of the "Target" will work if the installation of the Zoom app also installed the zoommtg protocol in your system. Note the password has been included:
    zoommtg://zoom.us/join?confno={MEETINGID}pwd={PASSWORD}
  7. If you host a regular Zoom meeting, you may start it with this shortcut, using the password for your Zoom account, not the one for users to join the meeting:
    zoommtg://zoom.us/start?confno={MEETINGID}pwd={HOSTPASSWORD}
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