Work-From-Home PC: Privacy Cleanup Before Video Calls

What your screen actually leaks

The obvious risk is open tabs, but the leaks that bite people are smaller. Typing a URL in front of the team lets autocomplete parade your private browsing history; every notification toast drags a message preview across the shared screen; and the moment you attach a file, the Open dialog shows document names you never meant to broadcast. Win+E, Alt+Tab and taskbar right-click menus each add their own surprises.

• Address-bar autocomplete — typing one letter can surface your private sites in front of everyone
• Notification toasts — chat and calendar messages arrive with full text previews on the shared screen
• Recent files in Open/Save dialogs — file names appear the moment you attach or upload something
• Quick access in File Explorer — Win+E shows your recent folders before you navigate anywhere
• Alt+Tab and taskbar previews — app thumbnails and window titles reveal what else is running
• Jump lists — right-clicking a taskbar icon lists the most recent documents in that app

The pre-call routine

Turn on Do Not Disturb (Focus in Windows 11 quick settings) so no toasts interrupt the call, and clear the notification history with Win+N — old banners sit there waiting to be seen. Hide desktop icons (right-click the desktop → View → Show desktop icons), because file names on the desktop tell a story of their own, and present from a clean browser profile or a second window instead of your daily one.

For file dialogs, open Folder Options and uncheck 'Show recently used files' so the recent list is empty when a dialog opens mid-call. If you demo the same machine weekly, a separate Windows account purely for presentations is the cleanest split: nothing personal exists there to leak. And before recurring calls, a one-click privacy cleanup — in Kleaner PRO it clears recent lists, jump lists and typed paths in one pass — beats rebuilding the routine by hand every time.

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