James Manios's community posts

Hello Polina,

Has there been any update on the mouse when using the dark overlay?  I was thinking what if the "remote utilities server" replaced the cursors to dark/black (or single pixels) and then issued a SystemParametersInfo (using SPI_SetCursors) call to force windows to reload the cursor icons.  (I guess save the current  HKEY\CurrentUser\Control Panel\Cursors before hand to put them back when remote utilities had closed the connection?)

I'm just posting a pic of the mouse, to emphasize that the host mouse is full brightness on the black background  (it is not darkened like the reset of the display).   https://photos.app.goo.gl/nzeLF955QAAjfsA69   https://photos.app.goo.gl/kEgGQciBCNaEaEjF8

I figured this was the solution to the display problem, but just wanted you to know it doesnt work “fully”.  I actually have the monitors at 100% brightness, so I did drop it to 50% but if you know to look, you can still read the text.   The real problem is you can see the mouse moving around and its NOT dimmed at all, its full brightness so it really stands out on the black background, this white mouse moving around. This causes people to come over it see whats going on, so can you please make the devs aware that the “render host mouse” options are not working.    I think if the mouse was NOT moving, (or was changed to a single pixel, something like that). most people would be fooled by the very-dark overlay being applied and ignore the screens.   Overall I think its better than collapsing to a single display (like RDP) that the previous version did, so I am glad it’s progressing, if they could stop the mouse, I would be content with this solution myself.

Just a heads up, I installed the beta 2 and its "interesting".   When locking the displays, the center screen goes off fully, and the 2 side screens go "very dark".  See picture https://photos.app.goo.gl/5UPWAaSWz5poegqVA  .  But it's important to realize that you can still see the text (but it's more difficult) -- https://photos.app.goo.gl/hkUab3PQjQTXXNdC8  so its something, I like it better than before ... but you could not consider it "very secure" !  Another problem is the host mouse is fully rendered and moves around so it draws the eye to the screen (which would help people release there is content on those screens) so it seems important to not render the host cursor.  I have set "render host cursor" to "never", but it's always rendered and tracking in locked display or unlocked display (I think that is probably a bug?).  I would consider it progress though

Polina,

Hi Polina,

Thanks for the update.  I would just like to give some details because some of this might not line up.  Previously  using Remote Utilities, "blank screen" used to work, in that it did not disable left and right, so its not "necessarily" Windows 10; unless it was an UPDATE to windows 10 that broke it, (that is possible).  I just want it to be understood that this "used to work" on Win10.  If your devs are thinking of using some of the advanced power management features of the monitor to "power them off" (like MCCS or DDC/CI) those features do not seem to work on my monitors :-( .  I was using RealVNC for similar functionality and it could turn off 2 of the 3 monitors; but actually now, none of them turn off (so that might help suggest Microsoft must have broken something in a Win10 update).

I hope you can resolve it, since its a pretty critical aspect for me.

To clarify, your first assumption is right.  Initially before blank screen, I see all 3 screens inside of the local client window (so compressed).  But when I hit "blank screen" its as if the left and right screen become detached at the remote.  I only see the center screen, (but all the windows and desktop icons move to the center screen as well).  It is very much like the monitors where detached).  When I turn the "blank screen" off, both the left and right come back, and "most" windows move back, (but some windows do not).  Meanwhile physically at the remote, all 3 screens do go blank.  I will send a video, but it was large so sending a youtube link

I should add, if I change the remote settings "Do Not Capture RDP Sessions" it doesnt lock the screen, they are all blank, BUT it still compresses down to one "center" screen only.  Then I turn "blank screen" off, all 3 screens re-enable

I have been reading all the posts about blank screen problems but mine seems "pretty different" fr om everyone else?  

The remote machine I connect to has 3 monitors, and the local/client only has 1 monitor.   The remote 3 monitors are set horizontally, (lets call them "Left","Center","Right").  Both machines are running Windows 10.  Remote Utilities is v6.10.10.0, and I have installed the display driver.

When I do NOT turn on "blank screen", I see all 3 remote monitors on the single monitor of the client, (which I can stretch or scroll around).  This is how I want it to work, BUT, when I blank the screen, the displays drop down to one monitor only (moving everything to monitor "Center").  On the remote machine it also locks the machine.  It's very similar to how RDP works.  When I turn the blank off, it re-enables the 2 other remote monitors ("left"/"right") unlocks the machine, and things "mostly" move back to wh ere they should be, but many apps get messed up and now stay on the "center" screen including all the debug detached screens of Visual Studio.  Is there any registry settings/other things I can look for?  I am running the latest drivers (nvidia) etc.