As a techno-peasant who has trouble with mute/unmute, figuring out how to « raise hand » before the speaker has moved on to other topics, and still can’t send a chat message no matter how many times it’s explained to me, I’ve got in the habit of restarting my computer after a Zoom or Teams session to make sure my mike is off.
Anyone else do that?
Nope, I would be restarting my computer several times a day if I did. Who do you think has time to listen in to your computer? Do you work on classified material? Have a jilted ex? Have you made enemies here? 
I think he just wants to make sure his subsequent Zoom call doesn’t start with him being “that person” whose background chatter is monopolizing the “room” as everyone filters in.
I only restart before Zoom if the camera doesn’t come on.
I use Teams for work and if I restarted after each call, I would spend all day typing in passwords (computer, VPN, server A, server B, server C, at a minimum), plus the authentication code. No thank you.
Precisely. Or I’m having a confidential discussion with a colleague and don’t want any chance of it being broadcast.
Instead of rebooting or logging off you could just see if the Zoom is still running by pressing Alt-Control-Delete and look at what apps are running. If Zoom is still active then highlight it and press End Task.
you did see the part where I can’t “put up my hand” or “chat”, right?
Who is running these meetings? When I run meetings, which is pretty often, I end meeting for all. As for being “that person” just look in the lower left corner and mute yourself if you are not automatically muted already.
I never restart. I do have my laptop turned so the camera points behind my monitor, so if anyone hacks it (unlikely) they’re not going to see anything interesting.
It is now impossible to think of a computer-challenged lawyer on Zoom without immediately recalling the cat lawyer! 
Glad I am not alone in being tech-daft. Here’s a resource that I used so I can Zoom meet with my tech nerd/geek sons, tiptoe around there to find some answers:
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/204772869-Zoom-Rooms-User-Guide
There is even a spot in there that offers an embarrassment-free Zoom practice session.
Here’s some of what little I know. Tap/touch/click to bring up your Zoom tool bar. On my iPad Pro that is a touch on the uppermost right hand corner. Little audio icon shows white microphone graphic with a red on or off for audio. Mute and unmute there. Useful for zoomies cats or swearing roommates.
In same bar look for three little horizontal dots. Tap/click those. A menu will let you choose ‘raise hand’. That same menu will let you choose ‘chat’. That lets you initiate a chat with either ‘everyone’ or a particular chat participant. Choose deliberately and carefully EACH time you chat and just for safety’s sake never chat anything that you wouldn’t want everyone on that zoom to hear if the worst happened and you chatted everyone instead of your best buddy.
That same tool bar lets you add a background, which I do from my photos album but other backgrounds are offered there. I do a background because the curtains behind my head are the dreariest grey and ratty looking from the depredations of my herd of zoomie cats.
If you are lucky enough to be on a zoom with your pets present, be sure to encourage their visible presence and be sure to tell the others their names-it will garner you a lot of “awwww…” and much goodwill and forgiveness.
Exactly!
Thanks for that. Will look.
In my first Zoom work meeting, my cat brought in and dropped a live mouse on the floor next to me. It wasn’t visible onscreen, but my reaction scream was.
Youtube would love to see that clip. 
When online videoconferencing became a big part of my day, I came up with a simple solution that absolutely assures that neither my microphone or my video camera can be commandeered between sessions and are definitively not on between sessions.
My home setup has external monitors, an external microphone, and an external camera, with my laptop closed and plugged into a dock. I bought a 4 port USB hub with physical on/off switches on each port and plugged it into one of the dock’s USB ports. When I’m not in a conference, my microphone and camera ports are switched off. It is very hard to defeat a physical on/off switch.
Not sure about Apple, but at least on Windows 10 there should be a microphone-shaped symbol in the rightmost section of the taskbar that indicates whether your microphone is capturing sound or not. As long as that symbol is in the “off” state, I’m pretty confident other people can’t overhear me talking crap about them.
But even if they could, I always make sure what I’m saying is not serious enough to get me hauled off to jail.
I take it you can’t just unplug your mic? The only computer’s I’ve used with built in mics were laptops, and the quality on them was so bad I’d never actually use them.
Huh. I’ve only used built-in mics on mine, both on laptop, and on desktop (the web cam mike.) No one’s complained so far. Same with my wife (and her computer) and when I go volunteer on the volunteer organization’s laptop. Do most people use a detachable/separate mike when Zooming? It doesn’t seem like it. (BTW, any recommendations? I may want one, anyway.)
I use my son’s old Kinect as a camera and microphone for my desktop. I plug it in before zoom meetings, and unplug it when I’m done. Seems to work OK.
I’m on Zoom calls all day, and I’ve never had a problem being sure that my mic and camera are off. If your Zoom session is active, it’s very clear when you’re mic and camera are active.