RealVNC Connect's Screen Blanking feature allows you to blank the screens of your devices when you connect to them. This allows you to control to a remote computer without people in the vicinity seeing what you're doing.

How do I enable Screen Blanking?

Open RealVNC Server's Options > Privacy page and turn on Blank screen when users are connected.

Once enabled, ensure that RealVNC Server's Users & Permissions are also configured to allow screen blanking:

Which operating systems support Screen Blanking?

Screen blanking is supported on Windows 10 (version 2004 and later), Windows 11 and macOS Tahoe 26. 

How long does Screen Blanking last for?

Screen blanking is active whenever there is a RealVNC Viewer connected.

Please note that there are some known issues that affect screen blanking, depending on the operating system, which are listed below.

Windows

• The mouse cursor is visible on the RealVNC Server computer's display/monitor
• When clicked, some menu items on system tray icons are briefly visible on the RealVNC Server computer's display/monitor
• Screen blanking is interrupted when using Windows' Desktop Peek feature
• Screen blanking is interrupted when hovering on an application's taskbar thumbnail

macOS

• Screen blanking will not work if you log out of the user account on the macOS device, and screen blanking will be stopped until a user logs in again. This is due to an Apple limitation.

How do I know if Screen Blanking is enabled?

When a RealVNC Viewer is connected to RealVNC Server and screen blanking is enabled, RealVNC Server will display a privacy badge on its icon in the system tray, next to the clock. Look for this icon:

What if I can’t get Screen Blanking to work?

Contact our support team here, including a debug server log.