Issue: Zoom meeting windows are masked to prevent screen capture

[jpliu]

I've just begun getting this error message that says: “Zoom meeting windows are masked to prevent screen capture. Disconnect the Extended display to continue.” when I have an external display attached to my computer during a Zoom meeting. This happens regardless of whether I'm screen sharing or not. My entire Zoom application is just greyed out.

If I disconnect the Extended display (an Elgato Prompter), everything restores. However, I've used Zoom with the Prompter for years, and I've never had an issue. This error message just started today (July 2, 2026). I wonder if the issue relates to the recently released DisplayLink Manager 16.1 (Build 25)?

[Kari]

I have no help to offer. I'm here because I am having the same issue. I was on Zoom yesterday and everything was fine.

[Szymon]

Hello

Thanks for your post.
We are looking into this. It's rather related to a Zoom update not DisplayLink Manager update.

Could you please share Zoom version?

Regards,
Szymon

[bellakidd]

Hi, I am having the same issue. I'm on Zoom version 7.1 and DisplayLink v16.1 build 25.

[jpliu]

📣July 15, 2026 UPDATE & FIX: I flagged this issue with Zoom, and they recommended I disable "Prevent screen capture of meeting content" directly in my Personal Meeting room by following these steps to prevent the Zoom app window from being masked when I host meetings.

Log in to the Zoom web portal

1. Go to Personal > Meetings > Personal Room
2. Click Edit
3. Click Show next to Options
4. Uncheck/disable "Prevent screen capture of meeting content"
5. This fixed the issue.

Note, after I've done this, if I then reenable the "Prevent screen capture of meeting content in the Admin-level settings at `https://zoom.us/profile/setting#tab-meeting`, as long as this is turned off in my Personal Meeting room settings, the Zoom app window behaves normally.

However, while this did fix the app screen masking issue, this still doesn't address the issue of the Zoom app window blanking when I have this option enabled. I've told Zoom that the app window's behavior shouldn't be linked at all to a DisplayLink connection because having a secondary screen attached via DisplayLink doesn't necessarily mean you're screen capturing.

If users ARE using DisplayLink, having this enabled means that their Zoom app would blank for them too, even if they’re not recording or capturing the screen, which is a major issue. Plenty of people use second screens connected via DisplayLink when joining Zoom calls, so this feature on Zoom seems broken. The behaviour of masking the screen should not relate to DisplayLink, right?

However, Zoom has said this in response to me flagging this with them:

"For now, an external DisplayLink screen is recognized by the system as being used for screen recording, so the meeting window will turn gray. To avoid this situation, either remove the external screen or disable "prevent screen capture"."

[daria22]

Thanks for posting the fix and the detailed follow-up, jpliu. I ran into the exact same problem after updating Zoom, and disabling "Prevent screen capture of meeting content" in my Personal Room settings resolved the masking for me too.

That said, I completely agree with your point that tying this behavior to a DisplayLink connection doesn't make sense. Having a second screen attached via DisplayLink isn't the same as screen recording, so greying out the app window seems like the wrong trigger. Hopefully Zoom revisits how they detect capture rather than treating every DisplayLink display as a recording device. Appreciate you flagging it with them.

[Szymon]

Many thanks jpliu for posting a working solution.

Regards,
Szymon