Desktop sharing experience hiding the informative banner in Windows 10

Think about two persons using the same computer at the same time, being the same user. Mess or useful option?

Miracast is a standard peer-to-peer wireless protocol, introduced in 2012 by the Wi-Fi Alliance, intended to replace the HDMI cable. Using the Wi-Fi Direct technology for sending screen-cast.

Long story short, using Miracast will connect two devices, mirroring the screen of one on the other. An option to avoid a cable between them.

Probably your are thinking in AirPlay or Chromecast now, proprietary solutions well know in the market, the advantage of Miracast is, it was design to be multi-platform.

Miracast sends content via Wi-Fi Direct, technology designed to interconnect devices, as Bluetooth does, but up to 10 times faster. The link between the devices is established via wireless network, this means a wireless point to point network is generated between both devices.

Latest Windows 10 releases supports Miracast protocol, receiving along with user input (touch screens, mouse, keyboard), on top of mirroring the screen of one device on the other, remote control is provided.

Why not using the Remote Desktop Protocol?

Remote Desktop Protocol by Microsoft allows an user to take control of another computer via network with a graphical user interface. User A connects to User B laptop, and controls it. The down-part here is, User B laptop gets locked, and User B is no longer able to use his laptop. Because Windows only allows one session per user.

Miracast on Windows 10 with the nice user input add-on results into two users, using the same computer at the same time, into the same session. Just think of having two keyboards and two mouses connected into a laptop, being used at the same time. Providing what was mentioned at the beginning of this article.

Now two devices running Windows 10 are connected, resulting in two users sharing the very same desktop in the same session. The limitation of one session per user is overcome with this approach.

The process to use Miracast is really straight forward, for this example we have 2 computers belonging to Arthur and Billie. Arthur will be the sharing the desktop (main computer) and Billie will be connecting.

Billie has to click on “Notifications” and click in Connect

Click on Projecting to this PC

And finally select “Available everywhere” to configure properly Miracast

Billie is ready to go. Her laptop is ready to connect to Arthur’s one.

Arthur has has to click on “Notifications” and click in Connect

There, Billie’s laptop will appear in the list

Arthur has to allow mouse, keyboard, and the rest on input devices. In order to provide full control to Billie

We achieved the Desktop Sharing Experience. Sharing the desktop, mouse and keyboard with another user, do we really need the notification bar?

If you would like to hide this notification bar, you just need to rename a file in your Windows system, as easy as it sounds. Arthur should follow the next steps

To rename the file, the first thing to do is to take ownership of it. Open a file explorer and go into the directory C:/Windows/System32 There search for the file named Windows.Internal.PlatformExtension.MiracastBannerExperience.dll

Right click and select Properties, and then select the Security tab, and Advanced

Next to Owner, click on Change

Click on Advanced…

In the window Select User or Group click on Find Now, select Administrators and OK

Click on OK to save the changes

Finally click on Apply, and OK.

The ownership of the file is changed now, and we have the rights now to rename it. In the file explorer which stills is open at C:\Windows\System32, right click on the file and click on Rename. Just add a “.bak” extension at the end. A pop up will appear, click on Continue

Now, you just have to reboot the computer and the banner is gone.

Extra point would be hiding the Connect section from the Notification area in Arthur’s laptop. We can achieve that with 5 clicks.

Click into the Notification area, and click into Manage notifications

Click in Edit your quick actions

Unpin the Connect section from your Notification area and click in Done