Managing Zoom meeting participants effectively requires a combination of pre-meeting configurations and in-meeting controls to maintain security, minimize disruptions, and ensure smooth collaboration. The most effective approach involves leveraging Zoom’s built-in features like waiting rooms, participant muting, screen sharing restrictions, and role assignments (host/co-host) to maintain control. For larger meetings, enabling authentication requirements, locking meetings after start, and directing questions through chat rather than open discussion can prevent chaos. Security measures such as passcodes, waiting rooms, and limiting participant interactions (e.g., annotations, file sharing) are consistently recommended across institutional guidelines to protect against unwanted intrusions.

Key findings from the sources include:

• Waiting rooms and authentication requirements are the top-recommended security features to screen participants before entry ^[2][4][6][7]
• Muting all participants on entry and restricting screen sharing to hosts only dramatically reduces background noise and unauthorized content sharing ^[3][4][7]
• Assigning co-hosts divides management responsibilities for large meetings, allowing multiple moderators to handle participant requests ^[1][6][8]
• Locking meetings after all expected participants have joined prevents unexpected entries, while removing disruptive participants and blocking their re-entry maintains order ^[2][3][4][6]

Essential Strategies for Managing Zoom Participants

Pre-Meeting Configuration for Security and Control

Setting up a Zoom meeting with the right security and participant management features before it begins is critical to avoiding issues mid-session. Institutional guidelines uniformly emphasize enabling authentication, passcodes, and waiting rooms as foundational steps. The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) recommends forcing authentication for participants to ensure only authorized users—such as those with institutional emails—can join, which is particularly useful for sensitive or internal meetings ^[4]. Similarly, Drexel University advises restricting access to only authenticated users (e.g., Drexel accounts) and requiring passwords for all meetings, even for internal teams ^[2].

Waiting rooms serve as a virtual gatekeeper, allowing hosts to admit participants individually or in groups. Northwestern University highlights that customizing waiting room messages (e.g., "Please wait for the host to admit you") can set expectations and reduce anxiety for attendees ^[7]. The University of California San Diego (UCSD) further notes that waiting rooms can be paired with two-factor authentication for high-security meetings, though this may add friction for participants ^[6].

Additional pre-meeting controls include:

• Disabling participant features by default: Turn off annotation, file sharing, and private chat in the meeting settings to minimize distractions or misuse ^[4][7]
• Setting screen sharing to "Host Only": This prevents unauthorized content from being displayed and is a standard recommendation from Illinois State University and UAB ^[3][4]
• Enabling "Mute Participants Upon Entry": This reduces background noise and gives the host control over when participants unmute, a tip shared by multiple institutions ^[3][7]
• Scheduling meetings via secure platforms: For educational settings, Illinois State University advises starting meetings from within learning management systems (e.g., Canvas) to avoid exposing meeting IDs publicly ^[3]

These configurations are accessible in Zoom’s Settings tab under Meeting Options when scheduling a new meeting. Hosts should also familiarize themselves with the Security icon in the meeting toolbar, which provides quick access to toggle features like locking the meeting or enabling the waiting room mid-session ^[4].

In-Meeting Participant Management Techniques

Once a meeting begins, hosts must actively monitor and adjust participant permissions to maintain order. The Manage Participants panel, accessible from the Zoom toolbar, is the central hub for these controls. From here, hosts can mute or unmute individuals or all participants at once, remove disruptive attendees, and assign co-hosts to share management duties ^[8]. The University of Colorado Denver’s PDF guide emphasizes that co-hosts retain most participant management capabilities, including muting, renaming, and placing attendees in waiting rooms, which is invaluable for large meetings ^[8].

For meetings with 50+ participants, Northwestern University recommends treating the session like a webinar: mute all participants by default, restrict chat to "Host Only," and disable participant video to reduce bandwidth issues and distractions ^[7]. This approach aligns with a Reddit user’s suggestion to direct questions via chat rather than open discussion, allowing hosts to filter or veto inappropriate queries before addressing them ^[5]. The Chat settings can be adjusted to limit messages to the host only or disable private chats entirely, a feature highlighted by Drexel University and UAB ^[2][4].

Critical in-meeting actions include:

• Locking the meeting: Once all expected participants have joined, hosts can lock the meeting to prevent latecomers or uninvited guests from entering. This is a standard recommendation from Illinois State, UAB, and UCSD ^[3][4][6]
• Removing and blocking participants: Hosts can hover over a participant’s name in the Participants panel, select More, and choose Remove. To prevent them from rejoining, enable the "Allow removed participants to rejoin" toggle in the meeting settings beforehand ^[2][6]
• Controlling audio/video: Hosts can mute noisy participants individually or use the Mute All button, with an option to "Allow Participants to Unmute Themselves" if interaction is needed. Video feeds can be turned off for all participants via the Security icon ^[4][7]
• Screen sharing management: If screen sharing is required, hosts can limit it to one participant at a time or designate specific co-hosts as the only sharers. Illinois State University notes this prevents accidental or malicious content sharing ^[3]

For persistent disruptions, the University of Alabama at Birmingham advises using the Security icon to quickly access options like locking the meeting, enabling the waiting room, or hiding profile pictures to anonymize participants ^[4]. The Hold feature, available in some Zoom versions, allows hosts to temporarily pause a participant’s audio and video without removing them, which can be useful for private discussions ^[6].