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How to Share Your Screen in a Teams Meeting

Applies toMicrosoft Teams
4 min fix Updated 14 Aug 2026

By , 10+ years in IT support and helpdesk How these guides are checked

Quick Answer

In a Teams meeting, click Share in the meeting toolbar, then choose Screen, Window, or PowerPoint Live. A coloured border marks what you are sharing. Click Stop sharing to end it.

Checked against Microsoft Learn - Microsoft Teams client, Microsoft 365 Roadmap and between 5 Aug 2026 and 12 Sep 2026. Nothing published in that period has been linked to this guide.

Corrected 14 Aug 2026. This guide said the sharing options appear in a tray at the bottom of the meeting window with an Include computer sound toggle. Teams is rolling out a redesigned share panel attached to the Share button, near the top right, and the toggle is now labelled Include sound. The guide describes the new panel and keeps a note for older builds. Every correction to this guide →

Summary ​

Screen sharing in Teams lets you show your desktop, a specific app window, or a PowerPoint presentation to meeting participants. This article covers all sharing options and how to give or request control.

In this guide

Before You Start ​

  • A Microsoft Teams account.
  • An active Teams meeting or call is required.

Instructions ​

1. Share Your Screen (Desktop App) ​

Choose what participants can see.

  1. In the Teams meeting toolbar, click the Share button (an upward arrow icon, or press Ctrl + Shift + E).
  2. A share panel opens attached to the Share button, toward the top right of the meeting window. Near the top sit an Include sound toggle, presenter mode options, and a background control, then the first sharing choices:
    • Screen — Share your entire desktop. Participants see everything on your screen, including notifications.
    • Window — Share a single application window. Participants only see that application.
  3. Scroll down for the rest — the panel scrolls even though no scroll bar shows:
    • Microsoft Whiteboard — Open a collaborative whiteboard.
    • Content from camera — Share a document or whiteboard through your camera.
    • PowerPoint Live — Browse and present a PowerPoint file interactively. Participants can navigate slides at their own pace.
    • Excel Live — Present an Excel workbook.
    • Browse OneDrive and Browse my computer, at the bottom — pick a file to present.
  4. Click the option you want. A red or blue border around the shared content confirms that sharing is active.

Note: On builds that have not received the redesigned panel yet, the same options appear in a sharing tray along the bottom of the meeting window, and the sound toggle is labelled Include computer sound.

Tip: Sharing a Window is safer than sharing your entire Screen — it prevents participants from accidentally seeing emails, chat messages, or other private content.

Note: Anything with audio needs one extra toggle. Turn on Include sound (Include computer sound on older builds) at the top of the share panel before you pick what to share, and share your Screen rather than a Window — window sharing often will not carry sound. See How to Share Computer Sound in a Teams Meeting.

2. Share Your Screen (Web Browser) ​

Screen sharing works in Teams on the web with some limitations.

  1. In the meeting toolbar, click the Share button.
  2. Choose Entire screen, Window, or Browser tab.
  3. A browser dialog asks you to select what to share. Choose the item and click Share.
  4. Some browsers may ask for screen sharing permissions the first time — click Allow.

3. Share Your Screen (Mobile) ​

Share your phone or tablet screen during a meeting.

  1. In the Teams meeting, tap the three-dot menu (⋯) at the bottom.
  2. Tap Share > Share screen.
  3. Confirm the screen sharing prompt. Everything on your device is now visible to participants.
  4. To stop, return to the Teams app and tap Stop presenting.

4. Give Control to Another Participant ​

Let someone else interact with your shared screen.

Control follows what you shared, not what you meant. Hand it over while sharing your Screen and the other person has your entire desktop — every window on it, your taskbar, and any notification that lands while they are driving. Hand it over while sharing a Window and they have that window in full. Microsoft's own warning states the reason plainly: a person with control can send commands that affect your system or other apps. Give control to people you trust, and pick Window over Screen whenever the plan is to let someone else take the wheel.

  1. While you are sharing, move your pointer to the top of the screen. The sharing toolbar drops into view.
  2. Click Give control. A list of the people in the meeting opens.
  3. Click the name of the person you want to hand control to. Their name appears on the sharing toolbar as the person now in control.
  4. That person can move the pointer, click, type, and open things inside what you shared. Your own mouse and keyboard keep working throughout — you are both driving the same screen, which is why it pays to say out loud who is doing what.
  5. Click Take back on the sharing toolbar whenever you want control returned. It comes back to you at once, and the other person's input stops. Taking control back undoes nothing they already typed, so check anything they were part-way through before you carry on.

Note: Control lasts for the sharing session and no longer. Stop sharing, switch to sharing something else, or leave the meeting, and it ends with it — no permission is left behind on your computer.

5. Request Control of a Shared Screen ​

Ask to interact with someone else's shared content.

  1. While another person is sharing, click Request control on the sharing bar at the top of the meeting window.
  2. The presenter sees your request on their sharing toolbar and chooses to approve or deny it. Nothing happens on your side until they answer — there is no countdown and no automatic grant.
  3. Once they approve, your pointer starts acting on their screen. You can make selections, edits, and other changes to the content they shared.
  4. Stay inside what they shared. Anything outside the shared screen or window is out of reach — you cannot wander into the rest of their computer.
  5. Click Release control when you are finished. The presenter has control again, and nothing you did is rolled back.

Tip: Ask out loud as well as clicking. The request appears on a toolbar the presenter may not be looking at mid-demonstration, and "I've sent a control request" saves a long silence.

6. Take Control Back or Release It ​

End a control session from either side of the meeting.

  1. If you gave control, click Take back on the sharing toolbar at the top of your screen. Control returns to you immediately.
  2. If you were given control, click Release control on the sharing bar. The presenter is back in charge and you return to watching.
  3. If the toolbar is not on screen, move your pointer to the top of the display to bring it down, then use the button you need.
  4. If nothing responds, end the share instead — click Stop sharing (Step 7). Ending a share ends every control grant attached to it.

Control also ends on its own when the presenter stops sharing or leaves the meeting, so a session that gets confusing is always one click from over.

7. Stop Sharing ​

End your screen-sharing session.

  1. Click Stop sharing on the sharing toolbar at the top of your screen (or press Ctrl + Shift + E again).
  2. Alternatively, click the Share button in the meeting toolbar and select Stop sharing.
  3. The red/blue border disappears and participants return to the normal meeting view.

Troubleshooting ​

TIP

If you are presenting a PowerPoint, use PowerPoint Live instead of sharing your screen. It gives participants the ability to navigate slides independently, see the slide deck in their own language (with live captions), and access accessibility features — all without affecting your presentation flow.

Symptom / ErrorPotential CauseSolution
Share button greyed outMeeting policy or your role in this meetingYou joined as an attendee, or your organization restricts sharing. See Fix Screen Sharing Not Working in Microsoft Teams for both fixes, including the ticket wording for IT.
Participants see a black screenHardware acceleration conflictWork through Fix Screen Sharing Not Working in Microsoft Teams — it covers hardware acceleration plus the multi-monitor and HDR causes.
Audio not shared with screenSystem audio not includedTurn on Include sound (Include computer sound on older builds) in the share panel before you select what to share. If participants still hear nothing, see Fix Screen Sharing Not Working in Microsoft Teams.
Give control or Request control is missingMeeting policy, the device you are sharing from, or hardware accelerationSee Give Control or Request Control Is Missing below — the fix differs for each.

Give Control or Request Control Is Missing ​

Four different causes produce the same empty toolbar, and they need four different answers. Work down the list.

Your organization turned control off for your account. The setting is Participants can give or request control, which an administrator sets in the Teams admin center under Meetings > Meeting policies > Content sharing. When it is off for you, Give control does not appear on the sharing toolbar at all, and nothing you change on your own machine puts it there. Raise a ticket and send them: "Please turn on 'Participants can give or request control' in the Teams meeting policy assigned to my account. I need to hand control of my shared screen to colleagues during meetings."

The other person is an external guest. Guests, anonymous joiners, and people from partner organizations are covered by a second, separate setting: External participants can give or request control, in the same Content sharing section of the policy. Turning on the first setting does nothing for them. Raise a ticket and send: "Please turn on 'External participants can give or request control' in the Teams meeting policy assigned to me. I need to give control of my shared screen to an external guest during meetings." Add one line of warning for them: where the guest belongs to another company you work with, that company's administrator has to have the same setting on before control can pass in either direction.

The device or app you are sharing from. Microsoft documents giving and taking control of presented content as unsupported in the native macOS sharing experience. Separately, Slide control — letting others move through your slides in PowerPoint Live — is unsupported in Microsoft Teams Rooms and for presentations shared from a phone or tablet, so a missing control button during a slide presentation may be that rather than a policy. If either of you is in Teams in a browser and the control buttons are absent, rejoin from the Teams desktop app and share again — that is the reliable route when control matters.

The dropdown opens and does nothing. Microsoft documents this one exactly: on a device with no graphics processor, or with hardware acceleration switched off, the Give control menu does not respond — you can see that someone requested control, but there is no way to approve it. That is the same setting behind several other sharing faults, and Fix Screen Sharing Not Working in Microsoft Teams covers where it lives and how to change it.

Last updated:

Frequently asked questions

How do I share a video so people can hear the audio?
Before you select the screen or window you want to share, look at the top of the share panel and turn on the toggle that says 'Include sound' ('Include computer sound' on older builds). Otherwise, they will only see the video in silence.
What is the difference between sharing a 'Screen' and a 'Window'?
Sharing a 'Screen' shows everything on that monitor, including your taskbar and incoming chat notifications. Sharing a 'Window' restricts the view to only that specific app (like Word); if you drag another app on top of it, the audience won't see it.
Can the person I give control to see everything on my computer?
They can see and act on whatever you are sharing. If you shared your whole screen, that is your entire desktop, including any notification that arrives while they have control. If you shared a single window, they are limited to that window. Share a window rather than a screen when you plan to hand over control, and click Take back on the sharing toolbar the moment you want it back.