Force curtain mode during screen sharing

We have an interesting use case. Under normal circumstances when someone goes to connect to a remote Mac OS device with screen sharing the device's screen keyboard and mouse still work. Most sites I've been to have recommended "Pay $80 and get Apple Remote Desktop". We actually do have a license for it here and use it for admin tasks (like, Hey... let me share your screen and help you out with your problem). However, we have another use case... We have a lot of iMacs here at the office. In the event of a snow storm the user wants to work from home. So they set up an SSH tunnel into my network and do a screen sharing session. Another user actually comes in to the office that day and can see everything the person is doing on their iMac (and actually do things to the screen themselves). Our compliance manager is having a fit because of this. Now, I can't force all my users to go out and buy ARD for their personal devices. Even if we did, I can't prevent them from using their normal screen sharing app to connect to their machines instead of ARD. So, ARD isn't an option.
So, I'm hoping there is another solution to the problem. Questions...
* Where are the ARD plist files and is there a setting that says "Always use Curtain Mode when connecting to this machine". I can probably use Profile Manager to force Remote Management (versus screen sharing alone) and set the ARD plist file to force curtain mode.
* Is it better to use "Remote Management" or "Screen Sharing" to accomplish this?
* Any other alternatives?
Thanks,
Scott

Hi.
How did you fix your problem? I have the same issue where the option to "switch to control mode" is greyed out. I have 4 macs at home with the same set up"it looks like the same set up" and it only happens on my new iMac.
I appreciate your help.
Yvon.

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Slow cursor during screen sharing

Hello,
Running Mavericks on both my 2009 MBP and 2012 2.5 it Mac Mini- I am noticing that the cursor is sluggish- up to the point where I can swirl it around on my trackpad from my MBP- and the controlled Mac Mini lags behind up to 20 seconds. I have not seen this prior to Mavericks so I am guessing it is a bug (even running a fan control app to see if cooling the Mac Mini which is mounted in a gator rack case but with ample circulation is causing the issues).
I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this. I am running an external Thunderboth to VGA display (and have even tried connecting via HDMI). Normally I use the hdmi headless dongle for live music use and don't notice the issue (but am not using the trackpad much as I have MainStage controlled via my controller).
Any other suggestions

Only the screen content is being shared during screen sharing. Audio sharing is currently not part of the functionality.
What's a use case you can see for transferring audio as well?
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Is there a way to switch to single-user mode for screen sharing in Lion?

Hello,
with the new multiple user mode one screen sharing guest can not see the mouse cursor of another - even if they use the same login.
It's a pity, because we use screensharing to discuss the content of the screens with multiple screen sharing users.
It is necessary to point with the cursor to show the other members of this 'screen sharing meeting' things while discussing.
This is not possible anymore with Lion and multi user screen sharing.
Does anybody know a patch or terminal command to switch back to single user mode for screen sharing?
Kind regards
Carl M.

Try using OmniDazzle to help draw attention to what you want:
http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnidazzle/

How to end full screen mode in screen sharing, how to end full screen mode in screen sharing

I inadvertently hit the 2 little arrows invoking full screen mode while in the screen sharing app. I can't get out of it now, and returned to the windowed mode. Help says to click the 2 little arrows, but I'm not being given 2 little arrows to click.
I see the screen sharing window, no border, against what looks like a background of denim.
pressing esc does nothing.
thanks for clues!
ray

When you move your cursor to the top of the screen the local mac's menu bar will appar out of hiding. The "two arrows" you're looking for are in a blue button on the right hand side of this menu bar.

Keyboard and mouse events during screen sharing

I use OS X 10.6.8, my mom has 10.5.(8?).
Screen sharing used to work fine. I am always viewing her screen.
Lately, none of my keyboard presses or mouse clicks make it through the connection to her machine. I can 'influence' but not really control the placement of her cursor as viewed on my screen. She never sees the pointer move from wherever it was before I started trying to move it. I can see her screen fine, and even see some frame rate if she plays a video from an email message (but I don't get the audio stream). We can't continue talking while the video is playing though because our voice connection has too many dropouts.
She did change from using Comcast to using AT&T Uverse several months ago. I can't remember exactly when the troubles started, but it could have been at the time of that switch. She is getting a lower speed connection than she used to.
Are these issues strictly a problem of a too-slow connection, or is there something else to try. I'm most concerned about the keyboard and mouse loss, since that means I have to describe every action to her instead of doing anything myself. I can live without viewing videos over a screen sharing link...

Hi,
It is worth doing Speed check at both ends
http://www.speedtest.net/
It may also pay to open the Connection Doctor (Video Menu) during a Audio or Video chat and checking the Bit rate and Framerate (on Video).
iChat in 1-1 Video needs "Real World" speed of 256kbps (it will manage according to Apple at 128kbps).
This Min of 128kbps is the min for Screen Sharing as well.
The Connection Doctor will show you what iChat is using (your Bit rate) NOT what the Internet Speed is measured at.
It will be closer to the Upload Speed you have.
iChat will tend to settle closer to the slower speed of whichever Buddy has the slowest Upload (plus a margin for variances in the ISP's feed/service)
If the variances in the Internet Speed from the ISP varies too much then iChat will have difficulties.
It will drop Audio (As far as you as concerned) as it will start dropping frames to smooth the video out.
For this reason it can pay to go to iChat > Preferences > Video Section and try the Bandwidth Limit at 500kbps (If for instance you have a 10Mbps Upload a 5% variance can be a whole 500kbps)
With both ends at 500kbps you can be below the Variance factor.
Try 200kbps if there still appear to be problems.
NOTE:-
iChat's responses are determined by the Internet Speed (Or at least the portion that computer is getting = Bandwidth) and what else the computer is doing.
Depending on the Mac and it's Processor and the apps running at the time iChat may not get a decent use of the Processor. (It is set to use it "last" a it were so Downloading, Playing Video elsewhere, or setting background tasks (Anit Virus scans, iMovie Rendering) may impinge on free Processor cycles).
Try to eliminate as much as possible.
<
9:19 PM Tuesday; July 19, 2011
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Unable to use clipboard during screen sharing

I was wondering how to use the clipboard function on the screen sharing toolbar. I have all Macs, running leopard. I've tried copying a file on my iMac, then remoting into my son's Macbook with screen sharing. On the screen sharing toolbar, there is a button labeled "send contents to remote clipboard" I click that and can see the file in the remote clipboard. But, when I right click "Paste item" on the remote desktop, I get an error "The items on the clipboard cannot be pasted to this location. One or more of the items may have been deleted or are no longer available"
I got a feeling I'm doing something wrong, but not sure what it is. Any advice would be appreciated.

I have that problem in making bookmarks. I try again, the error pops up and the bookmark is created.
There are a number of problems with Reader/Acrobat and MS Office working together. Each company points fingers at each other and refuse to work together to solve the problem. So we the users pay the price.
Reader and Acrobat are not the only programs having problems working with Microsoft.

Getting black screen during screen sharing

I'm setting up another PPC Mac Mini in my home. (All machines run the latest Leopard with updates.) I've pretty much copied all the sharing options from PPC Mac Mini #1 to enable screen sharing on PPC Mac Mini #2. I can screen share fine from Macbook to Mac Mini #1.
However, when I try to screen share with Mac Mini #2, all I get is a very small black screen. However, if I use VNC on my Macbook to the Mac Mini #2, it works fine.
What am I doing wrong?

OK, so I tried the referenced threads from here and none of it works. ARRGH!
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8273469&#8273469
Anyone else have ideas?
I suppose that I could use DynDNS updater and just VNC to this Mac but what's the point of screen sharing if it doesn't work natively? Makes no sense and is very frustrating.
Message was edited by: oldskoolboarder

How to force Display mode for screen

I am pretty new to enhancements and this is probably an easy question:
I have implemented an enhancement that does a security check for a specific business area.
If the user is of a specific business area i want them to be able to edit the screen. (done)
but if they are of another area i only want them to be able to view the screen.
I am just not sure how to lock them to display only mode.
thoughts?
-Jason
code right now:
DATA: LS_ASTNR LIKE PRPS-PGSBR.
IF NOT SAP_PRPS-PGSBR IS INITIAL.
AUTHORITY-CHECK OBJECT 'Z_PS_PROJ'
           ID 'PS_ACTVT' FIELD '02'
           ID 'GSBER' FIELD SAP_PRPS-PGSBR.
    LS_ASTNR = SAP_PRPS-ASTNR+4(4).
    AUTHORITY-CHECK OBJECT 'Z_PS_PROJ'
             ID 'PS_ACTVT' FIELD '02'
             ID 'GSBER' FIELD ls_astnr.
IF SY-SUBRC <> 0 .
    SAP_X_ACTVT = ' '.
else.
    if SAP_PRPS-PGSBR <> LS_ASTNR.
** Need to go to display only mode; but still authorized to view.
    endif.
    SAP_X_ACTVT = 'X'.
ENDIF.
ENDIF.

Hi Jason,
in the PBO of the screen you can set all INPUT = 1 field to to INPUT = 0 using LOOP AT SCREEN.
But be careful, you will also disable all active buttons in the screen.
Regards,
Clemens

Using anything other than full colour mode in screen sharing

Hi, I have an iphone with jaadu on it that I use for screensharing. I used to use vine server, but I was having a lot of problems for it, so I reverted back to using Leopard's screensharing feature, which I like because it runs discreetly in the background.
However, what I was wondering, is how I can change the quality mode to something like greyscale or 8 bit. I know its possible to make my computer greyscale in UA options, but can I have it do this automatically everytime a VNC connection is initiated? I've tried editing the com.apple.ScreenSharing plist or whatever it was called and changing the observe quality to 2 and 3, but the changes do not reflect in my client (Jaadu)
Any help would be appriciated!
Thanks!

bump for vnc and iphone love =D

HDMI: Mini - Receiver - TV resolution bugs triggered by Screen Sharing

Hi all,
I'm having an issue when connecting my Mini to my Samsung TV when running it through a receiver (Pioneer). Before we had the receiver in the mix, this issue never came around. Now that the receiver is involved, I believe this may be an issue related to the "handshake" that I've been reading about when HDMI devices try to connect to eachother.
What works:
- If I sit down on the living room couch, turn on the TV, receiver, and Mini, there are no issues. The resolution is correct.
- If I leave the TV off, receiver on, boot up the mini, and connect to it via OSX Screen Sharing... I am able to use it as a media center and play music through the mini and receiver, leaving the TV off to save power.
What doesn't work:
If I try to switch between "living room" mode (couch / TV) and "Screen Sharing" mode, the resolution gets all fouled up and I need to reboot the mini in order to make it usable. Here is a screenshot showing how it looks when trying to go from "living room" mode to "Screen Sharing" mode:
The only way to get out of here is to hold down the power button, forcing the mini to shut off abruptly, then reboot.
Conversely, if I try to switch from "Screen Sharing" mode to "living room" mode, it's a little different - the top and bottom of the screen is cut off. Part of the dock is off of the screen, and the menu at the top of the screen is virtually gone. With this method, I'm actually able to move the mouse off the screen and navigate to "Apple -> Restart" so that it reboots and starts working fine again.
I've been on the phone with Apple (yes, I have Apple Care) and they pointed me to Pioneer, saying that the mini was receiving instruction from the receiver. When I called Pioneer, they had me turn off some "HDMI auto detect" features in the receiver but this did not resolve my problem.
Any suggestions? Any help would be much appreciated!
Thanks,
-Nate

this is not an elegant solution but here goes. there may be something in the pioneer that would fix you but here is a solution around the receiver. plug the computer video into an input on the tv. if you use hdmi - you will need a separate audio out of the computer to the receiver. program your remote control so that it switches the audio on the receiver to the separate audio from the mini and program the remote so it switches the tv input to the hdmi. if you keep the hdmi to the receiver you will need a different video out of the mini to the tv. its a little complicated but it should work.

Curtain Mode Buggy?

Hi!
Is anyone finding Curtain Mode to be buggy lately? We seem to be having problems with client machines locking up, losing the ARD connection, or losing client menu control. The biggest problem is when the client machine becomes unresponsive, forcing us to physically power down the computer.
I found an Apple Support article that instructed users to not use Curtain Mode during login, but to activate it after login has occurred. We've found this to be true as well and have been doing this for some time. However, recently (maybe since the 10.5.5 update?) there seem to be more glitches.
I'm sorry I don't have more specifics, as I haven't been able to identify a repeatable sequence of events to make the client lock up. Anyone else having similar problems?
Thanks!

I would love to do a quick test to see if I can see what you do.. but I've already upgraded to 10.5.6. I would suggest trying to update your Admin system and a single target to 10.5.6 and see if it makes a difference for you.

Screen Sharing freezing and high CPU usage

Hello all,
I use screen sharing to remote my mac mini as a media server connected to ma HD TV to play movies, music and surf.
Since I upgrade to mavericks on my macs (Macbook Pro Retina and my Mac Mini) I have some troubles with the screen sharing feature.
No problems with the login step, the connexion is fast, all permissions are OK (I saw there were a bug with some RDP release) but sometimes, when I use fullscreen software as VLC, Firefox, etc (not the native apple full screen feature, I just clic on the + at the top of the window), my sreen sharing freeze and I can't do or move anything on the remoted mac mini. I'm unable to close (or reduce) the screen sharing app too, it's totaly busy (But I can see the movie or the website on the 2 computer, there is no deconnection)... I have to kill the process through the monitoring activity.
During the freezing time, I try to use vnc light from my Iphone and I have no problem, I can move the mouse, reduce le VLC windows... As soon I reduce the VLC windows, the screen sharing works again. I also use the logitech TouchMouse to remote the mouse, everything work fine.
Here are a screen shot of the monitoring activity of the Mac running the screen sharing app, we can see that there is a very high CPU usage when I use VLC in fullscreen on my mac mini. The first is in normal mode. The second is in freeze mode. Screen Sharing is named "Partage d'écran".
Can someone help me to fix that, everything works fine with Mountain Lion.

I have a Macbook Pro 13.5" 2.8 GHz 4 core (2 real, 2 hyperthreaded) i7 machine running with 1920X1200 display, 3 virtual screens and VMWare adding a few virtual screens (full sized). I have another Macbook Pro 15" with 2.6 GHz Haswell 8 core (4 real, 4 hyperthreaded). I see the problem using Screen Sharing on the 15 inch (Retina screen) mode simulating 1920 X 1200 pixels using Screen Sharing to the 13.5" Macbook Pro.
When I get the ScreenSharing problem, I have identified it as related to the VMWare screen on the 13.5" Macbook Pro being shown through Screen Sharing on the Retina Screen. Before you conclude it is a VMWare problem, the computations are only on the Screen Sharing client side, not on the server side running VMWare. The mouse gets unusable through Screen Sharing. If I physically move the mouse on the 13.5" Macbook, no problem. If I switch virtual screens, the Screen Sharing goes to normal processing.
I see an appearance of a compute-bound thread on the Screen Sharing client. It takes 100% CPU on one thread, the machine as a whole is 12.5% busy (the performance monitor considers all 8 threads as equal when in fact, they are not).
A few more pieces of information. The VMWare client ends up having a lot of overlapping windows with a lot of changing graphics. My mouse runs into problems especially when it is overlaying a changing plot (Perfmon running in Windows 7, or updating email client). It does turn out that VMWare has a "native" VNC server built-in and I tried to connect to the virtual screen using the Screen Sharing Client on the machine with computing problem and voila!, no problem. I end up having a Screen Sharing Client running native running screen (supposed to be VNC, but I have not verified that) sharing protocol on a virtual screen that is NOT the VMWare virtual screen and a separate session using actual VNC protocol using the VMWare VNC server. It works perfectly fine.
If I may hazard a guess, I think I know what the bug is, or at least, what is the nature of the problem that I have. The rest of you may have a different bug. When I have difficulty, it is because I am on a window that suppresses the dock, both in remote virtual screen and on the local machine showing the screen. Two docks are suppressed, one remote, one local. Throw in overlapping windows with changing graphics in the overlapped windows and toss in a mouse on top of that. I think that the Screen Sharing is trying to refresh overlapping windows with mouse and going through the suppressed dock calculations and never converging on what the picture should be. The mouse ends up being the visible cue that shows the time frame for iterating the windows - flickers with a timeframe of greater than a second. That is far greater than the screen update time. It is totally compute bound with all the overlapping stuff that it is deconflicting. At least, that is what I think is going on.
Meanwhile, the VMWare VNC server appears to send out a single graphics context and causes the Screen Sharing client to converge to a picture. Note, the mouse appearance is very different when attaching to the VMWare VNC Server rather than the ScreenSharing native server. I see two mouse renderings, the virtual machine remote and a mouse rendering from my Screen Sharing client side. They are mostly in sync in position unless I move the mouse very quickly. If I use Screen Sharing client and server instead, I usually see only one mouse, the client side's mouse rendering.
I have a solution for my problem. It is similar to using a different VNC server/client pairing. I will use a VNC server for the systems giving me trouble that is not Screen Sharing Server exercising a probable bug in the Client (though, it could be a problem in the design of Screen Sharing itself).

Screen Sharing and Virtual Desktop

Is there a way to force a new remote screen sharing connect to a "Virtual Desktop"?
In my experience, if another user is logged into the computer the new remote screen connection will be forced or given the option to connect to a virtual desktop. This will allow the new connection to run in the "background" without the first connection being influenced.
The issue is when a new remote connection is initiatied and no other connections are active the new connection will be shown on the computer's hardware monitor. i.e. No option is given to connect via a virtual desktop.
This is a security issue because a user can connect remotely and if he is the only connection on the computer he will have all his work shown on the hardware display.
I am hoping to find a way to force all remote connections to be on virtual desktops.

I guess its worth mentioning that although you can indeed screen share from Leopard to Tiger, it only works when you are on the same network. But Remote Desktop works across the internet...
Of course the trick to using Remote Desktop from a truly "remote" location elsewhere on the internet is that you have to be able to reach the IP of the computer you want to control, which can be tricky if its behind a NAT and the person your trying to reach is my Mom who has no idea how to configure her NAT, or firewall, or even find her IP address without my help.
Screen sharing Leopard to Leopard via iChat should be much more straight forward... translation: this will make my life much easier the next time my mom needs help.

If Your Screen Sharing Stops Working, Read This

SCENARIO: I have a network of Macs. On my main machine (a Mac Pro), I have set up bookmarks in Safari that link to the Screen Sharing URLs for other Macs on my network (Mac minis, MacBook Air). For example:
vnc://192.168.1.51
vnc://192.168.1.52
So I can kick off a Screen Sharing session with one of those Macs simply by clicking the appropriate bookmark in Safari.
PROBLEM: Sometimes when I do this, one of two things happens... either the Screen Sharing program launches in the dock but the window for the other Mac does not appear at all, or the Screen Sharing program launches and a small black window (with nothing visible inside) appears. Killing and restarting Screen Sharing does not help, and restarting the remote Mac does not help.
SOLUTION: One way to solve this problem is to restart the Mac where you are attempting to use Screen Sharing. But this is overkill; it works because it incorporates the second, easier solution to the problem:
1. Launch the Activity Monitor program.
2. In the Process Name list, look for "NetAuthAgent". It may show as "Not Responding".
3. Select NetAuthAgent, and then click Quit Process (the red stop sign button at the top of the Activity Monitor window). Then, click Force Quit.
Your Screen Sharing should now work.
It appears that as part of connecting to the remote Mac, your Mac must authenticate itself... and NetAuthAgent is part of this process. If this program freezes, hangs, or locks for any reason, the authentication will not work, and you cannot use Screen Sharing. Killing NetAuthAgent is harmless, as far as I can tell, and it will automatically relaunch the next time it is needed.
For anyone else having problems with Screen Sharing not working correctly, I hope this information helps.

having related problem with NetAuthAgent
"loginwindow" process in activity monitor is Not Responding constantly (through warm and cold reboots)
this causes a number of problems, slow network performance, hangs, no ability to restart/shutdown
killing "NetAuthAgent" is the only way to make "loginwindow" process responsive again
and restores lost functionalities
having this problem across three networked machines (macpro, macbook pro, mac mini) all running 10.5.2
have reapplied the 10.5.2 combo upgrade but no fix. only witnessed this problem since 10.5.2

Mouse pointer/cursor clicking fails while screen sharing in Messages & iChat

Has anyone else had this problem?
My work partner is sharing her screen using iChat on OS 10.6.8 and I'm controlling it with Messages on OS 10.8.3 - usually working on Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.
Every few minutes or so, I lose the ability to click anything on her screen. Audio/video works fine, and my keyboard commands run fine on her computer, I can usually even move the pointer fine but, clicking my mouse or trackpad has no affect on her computer. This is sometimes accompanied by a flashing stalled pointer.
We can usually fix it by having her click her mouse/trackpad a couple times and then I can continue with clicking again from mine.
But, sometimes she's not at the computer so there's no way for me to recover screen share clicking when her computer is unattended.
We both have high speed internet with 10+mb down and 5+mb up speeds.
I've also tried it with bluetooth off and still have the same problem.
Does anyone know how to recover from failed mouse clicking during screen sharing?
Thanks.

HI,
I have not see this but at the same time I do not Screen Share as extensively as you seem to describe.
One interpretation I could out on this from what you have written is that not only is your girlfriend getting bored and wondering Off ( ) but her computer may also be going to sleep.
I have never waited long enough for one of my other computers to go to Sleep during a Screen Share to find out what happens.
1) does the Share Screen go dark ?
2) do you lose the connection as it closes the network ?
3) Is a Screen Saver starting that you can see ?
4) what does your girlfriend see when this happens ?
I would guess there is something about the VNC part of the iChat Screen Sharing that stops the Shared computer going to sleep.
However I am not sure if a Screen Saver can be active or if you are bumping into the time set for one to start.
I would also be interested in what the other computer is doing in a "behind the scenes" way.
Is something using up the Processor cycles and holding up the Share view as it were ?
I would guess her computer is doing something on it's own such as fetching Mail or similar or even the Time Machine Back up which can be known to cause the computer to be held up for a moment or two.
8:36 PM Tuesday; April 16, 2013
 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.3)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Force curtain mode during screen sharing

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