laptop to projector
December 19, 2018 6:00 PM   Subscribe

I often need to hook my laptop to the projector at work, and I need the laptop to continue displaying its screen (sometimes a website, sometimes a powerpoint) while the laptop is locked.

I work at a high school where the students are inquisitive. I set a password on the teacher's computer/laptop and then had to set it so it locks after 3 minutes, since if I step away from the media cart to work with a student one on one, another student will immediately attempt to use the computer to change the display. Basically, leaving it unlocked isn't an option. HOWEVER, when it's locked, the projector will display either the computer's screensaver or will just be black. Is there a way to make it so that the laptop is locked to input but the projector is still displaying whatever was on the screen?
posted by spunweb to Technology (4 answers total)
 
Some projectors will have a "freeze" button on the remote. Pressing that will freeze the current image, ignoring any changes to the input until the button is pressed again. If you freeze the projector display, then the computer can lock without affecting the projected image.
posted by whatnotever at 6:04 PM on December 19, 2018 [5 favorites]


I have a first-generation Chromecast device and on occasions when I've been playing video through it (via its ability to show a Chrome browser tab on the television it's attached to) and switched to a different Windows account, the video has continued playing. This would lead me to expect it would do the same when the computer is locked.
posted by XMLicious at 11:37 PM on December 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


You can use a "transparent screensaver" to continue displaying the screen while the computer is locked. I've used one in the past but can't remember which but from a google search these two look good:
- open source
- commercial
posted by JonB at 3:40 AM on December 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


Perhaps "kiosk mode" might be configured to do what you're looking for?
posted by sammyo at 10:40 AM on December 20, 2018


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