Goodbye Microsoft Teams bar... Hello Productivity

We've all been there, you're in a meeting, you start sharing your screen and things are going great... next up you need to do something at the top of your screen and you can't because the Microsoft Teams bar is in the way. You can't move it, you can't hide it, you can't do anything about it. Or can you?
Collaboration Microsoft Teams Productivity
📅 16 May 2024

Do you know those videos that say "How old were you when you found out..."? Well... How old were you when you realized you can hide the Microsoft Teams share box with a shortcut key?

Oh, you didn't know that could happen?

Keep reading 😅

Context

For those of you who might be wondering what I'm talking about... maybe you use slack instead of Microsoft Teams or maybe you're 1 of those tabs on the left types of people

A close-up of a person showing a mild disgusted expression. The individual has slightly furrowed eyebrows, a mildly wrinkled nose, and lips slightly pursed in distaste. Their eyes are slightly narrowed, and their head is turned slightly away as if avoiding an unpleasant sight or smell. The background is neutral to keep the focus on the facial expression.
Figure: A Mild Expression of Disgust... it's not you... it's me

but anyway... The Microsoft Teams share bar if the random behavior is in your favor shows

You're sharing taking up a little space in an annoying area
Figure: You're sharing taking up a little space in an annoying area

Now... if your cursor goes anywhere near this area, and most of the time really (sometimes it never shows like above), you'll see this share bar

The Swiss army knife of sharing bars
Figure: The Swiss army knife of sharing bars

This share bar can do everything... including never move out your way so you can access the tabs behind it. In a browser this is easier to solve, because you can ctrl + tab your way to glory switching between each tab... but in your IDE or some other applications, that just isn't going to cut it

The Solution

And now that I've done all this backstory that most people probably skipped over and just came to the solution part anyway... or likely what happened is a bing search and you never landed here anyway

Bing result gives away the sauce before you visit the page 😐
Figure: Bing result gives away the sauce before you visit the page 😐

The way to remove the Microsoft Teams share bar is to

  1. Click on the time (mainly to focus the panel)
  2. Press cmd + W (on mac) or ctrl + W (on windows)

The bar will now disppear... I have not figured out how to make it come back again... although to be honest I've only used it a handful of times in my life 😅

🚨 Important note, which if you found this through a bing search you likely won't see... don't press this keyboard shortcut while the main Microsoft Teams window has focus as this will drop you off the call using an express code path that's quicker than click Leave (or at least it feels like it)

Cheers

If you found this useful let me know on X (@GordonBeeming) or LinkedIn (gordon-beeming)... I'm convinced it wasn't just me that knew this and it would be cool for you to reach out and show the love 👀