This article applies to all TeamViewer customers with a Remote Access, Business, Premium, Corporate or Tensor plan.
General
With the TeamViewer Black Screen feature, you can hide the remote screen in connections to a Windows, Mac or Linux computer into a full-screen security image.
With this, you can make sure to protect your privacy at work by hiding the content of the remote screen with TeamViewer Black Screen.
Once this feature is activated,
- the remote computer's screen gets immediately hidden by the TeamViewer security image (see below)
- the input on the remote computer gets also disabled
To enable this feature, please follow our How-to guide.
Compatibility
You can turn the remote screen black in connections from any desktop platform OS (Windows, macOS and Linux) to any Windows device running Windows 7, 8 and 10, any Linux and macOS device (only for TeamViewer version 15.8 and higher).
Prerequisites for macOS
Black screen on macOS is only available if a TeamViewer version 15.8 or higher is running on the remote Mac.
Due to technical restrictions, it is only possible to activate the black screen, if “Start TeamViewer with System” is selected.
In addition to that, Accessibility permissions need to be granted for the TeamViewer application. This applies also to users on macOS 10.13 who did not need this permission earlier for a successful TeamViewer remote support.
Please keep in mind: Since 10.14 (Mojave) this setting is a pre-requisite to be able to control the remote Mac.
For an optimal remote access setup, we recommend the following:
- Deactivate Siri, as it’s still listening to voice input and will still react on “Hey Siri”
- Deactivate computer sound
Please be aware that the keyboard input on the remote side cannot be blocked while showing system password fields due to restrictions on macOS itself.
How to activate the standard Black Screen
During a remote control session (spontaneously)
To activate the Black Screen during a remote control session on the remote device, please click on the Actions (1) tab in the Remote Control toolbar and choose Show Black Screen (2)
Via the TeamViewer options of the remote computer (permanently)
You can set up the TeamViewer Black Screen as default in every connection to a specific device (e.g your computer at work). To do so, you need to set it up in the TeamViewer options of the remote computer you want to connect to
- Open TeamViewer on the remote computer
- Go to Extras → Options
- Access the Advanced tab, and scroll down to Advanced setting for connections to this computer
- First, tick the setting Disable local input and then tick Enable local blackscreen
Or follow the instructions of this animation:
📌Note: Every time you will connect to this specific computer, the TeamViewer black screen will be automatically enabled and remote input will be deactivated.
📌Note: Currently not available for Linux.
Via the Computers & Contacts list (permanently)
1) In the Computers & Contacts list, select the device, click on the grey gear and then on Properties
2) In the Properties menu, click on Advanced
3) In the Remote input option of the Actions Settings, select Disable remote input and show black screen
4) Save by clicking OK
Or follow the instructions shown in this animation:
📌Note: Every time you will connect to this specific computer, the TeamViewer black screen will be automatically enabled and remote input will be deactivated. This last procedure also works analogically when connecting to a contact.
📌Note: Currently not available for Linux.
How to activate the customized Black Screen
📌Note: In our examples here, the image file is named test.png
You can customize this feature by inserting your own image when activating the Black Screen. To do so, please follow these instructions:
For Windows
On the remote computer
1) Make sure the option Start with system option is enabled and close TeamViewer.
2) Open the Registry Editor and go to the following path:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\TeamViewer
3) Now click on Edit, go to New and select String Value
4) Rename the key entry CustomBlackScreen and add as a value the path that leads to your custom image and include the image file name in the path:
...and press OK.
5) Now, restart the TeamViewer service.
💡Hint: Please find here a GIF showing how to restart the TeamViewer service.
On the local computer
1) Open TeamViewer.
2) Activate the TeamViewer Black Screen. Your custom image will be displayed on the remote computer.
For macOS
On the remote computer
1) Make sure the option Start with system option is enabled and close TeamViewer.
2) Open the Terminal and add the following setting:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.teamviewer.teamviewer.preferences.plist CustomBlackScreen -string "/path/to/test.png"
Please make sure that the image is located in the path you have indicated.
On the local computer
1) Open TeamViewer.
2) Activate the TeamViewer Black Screen. Your custom image will be displayed on the remote computer.
📌Note: The supported image formats for Windows are: JPEG and PNG
The supported image formats for macOS are: BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG
Only relevant for Windows 7 and below
For Windows 7 and below, to be able to turn the remote screen black, the TeamViewer monitor driver needs to be installed on the remote device. If the driver is already installed, the remote screen will turn black immediately.
If it is not installed, you will be prompted to install it when using the feature for the first time. A pop up will appear. Please click on Continue (3) to install the driver.
You can also install the TeamViewer monitor driver via the TeamViewer settings.
Please open the setting by clicking on Extras --> Options --> Advanced --> Show advanced options --> Advanced network settings --> Install monitor driver --> click Install...
📌Note: Not all monitors, video cards, motherboards, or BIOS support the TeamViewer monitor driver solution, which is required to use the black screen. The TeamViewer monitor driver solution is dependent on the implementation of hardware vendors and in case of incompatibility, you may not be able to use this feature with some host computers.
Ctrl + Alt + Del / Cmd + Option + Esc
Users still have the option to press the key combination Ctrl + Alt + Del (Windows and Linux) or Cmd + Option + Esc (macOS) on the remote computer.
Ctrl + Alt + Del (for Windows and Linux)
Cmd + Option + Esc (for macOS)
This will:
- remove the black screen on the remote computer
- lock the remote user's session
- enable remote input
Therefore, the user working remotely can be 100% sure that no one can see what he is doing during his remote control session. As soon as the key combination is used on the remote computer, the following pop-up will appear on both sides of the connection:
📌Note: Locking the user's Windows session with the Ctrl + Alt + Del combination is only working on devices running Windows 8 and 10.
