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Privacy Mode

Privacy Mode

Updated

Privacy Mode is a feature available for Teams and Warp customers that disables the physical displays on the Windows host to offer privacy to the user who is joining through Parsec. The host computer also goes to the lock screen when the last guest disconnects. As the Privacy Mode feature requires virtual displays, Windows users should review Virtual Display Driver technical reference before proceeding.

Configure - Windows

  • Install the Virtual Display Driver
  • In the 'Host' tab of the Parsec app settings, select the number of virtual displays you would like to enable. To enable Privacy Mode, you must have at least one virtual display.
  • Next to 'Privacy Mode' select 'On'.

Configure - MacOS

  • In the 'Host' tab of the Parsec app settings, select the number of virtual displays you would like to enable. For MacOS, additional virtual displays are not required for Privacy mode. If you enable privacy mode and manually add virtual displays for MacOS, you may find you need to move your applications from the physical display to the virtual display, as they will not be moved automatically. This is because the physical displays remain connected and active with Privacy mode on MacOS. 
  • Next to 'Privacy Mode' select 'On'.

If you're already connected to the host prior to enabling virtual displays, you will need to disconnect and reconnect to activate the virtual displays.

    • Teams customers can enforce virtual display settings from the Teams admin portal using App Rules to define the settings per ruleset.

Houdini Crashes

There is an issue with using Houdini while utilizing Parsec VDD with Privacy mode that has been corrected by investigations carried out by our engineers. The issue is caused by a clash between an OpenCL driver (provided with Windows and Linux based systems) and your GPU driver. We have successfully implemented a fix for our clients of disabling the OpenCL driver from loading into memory and utilizing the GPU for OpenCL. To implement the fix please follow the below steps:

  • Open Houdini and navigate to Edit->Preferences->Miscellaneous and specify the GPU as the OpenCL device.
  • Open the Houdini environment variables file (Houdini.env) and add the two variables below. The first variable listed ensures that the GPU is used for OpenCL functions while the second variable tells Houdini not to load the built-in CPU OpenCL driver that is shipped in $HFS (64-bit Windows and Linux).
    • HOUDINI_OCL_DEVICETYPE=GPU
    • HOUDINI_USE_HFS_OCL=0

As an alternative, if OpenCL is not needed, the issue can be fixed by going into Houdini's installation directory, opening the bin folder, and renaming the OpenCL folder there to something different. When you open Houdini, there will be a warning about OpenCL which can be safely ignored, and Houdini will open fine.

Notes

  • If you decide to disable Privacy Mode but keep virtual monitors, you may need to visit the Windows Display Settings and set your physical monitor to be extended, as it may remain disabled.
  • The Virtual Display Driver (required for Privacy Mode) does not negate the need for GRID Virtual Workstation licensing for NVIDIA based cloud GPU instances from AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, and others
  • You may find that your virtual displays are added to the system in a duplicated / clone mode to the physical display if these are connected. You will need to visit the Windows Display Settings on your host and set displays to be extended.
  • You may not be able to add custom resolutions to this display via your GPU driver software
  • Virtual Displays do not stick by when you're not connected on Parsec. They are added when you connect via Parsec, and then removed when you disconnect from Parsec

 

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