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Screen share in Teams not showing all open windows as sharing options

Anonymous
2020-11-05T19:47:57+00:00

I'm a high school science teacher and our district is using Microsoft Teams for distance learning.  The students log into a meeting, and I can present lecture materials and share my screen to show them many documents and videos.

I've recently been unable to access all of the screen sharing options I used to have available.  When I start a screen share, I can choose between the two screens (I have my classroom projector plugged in as a second monitor) and I can choose between some of the windows I have open, but not all of them.  The ones that seem to consistently be missing from the options are the Camera app built-in to Windows, and the Movies and TV app.

Before, I used the Camera app in a couple of ways:  I will turn it on and screen share that window so that the recording of the class meeting shows me and not the four students who spoke most recently.  I do this during some of the class discussions.  I also have a digital camera that attaches to a microscope, and plugs into the computer via USB.  The Camera app sees it as another camera, and I just click the option to change to the "front-facing" camera instead of the built-in webcam to share the view of the microscope with the class.

I discovered that when I stream videos in the meeting and have several students logged in, the video tends to lag on their screens.  When I have a copy of the video on my computer, I am able to play it using the Movies and TV app and it shares to the meeting with no lag.

I can no longer choose either of these when selecting a window to screenshare.  I'm able to work around it a little bit by putting the window on one of the screens and sharing the screen, though this limits some of my workflow, since I can no longer use that screen and continue working while sharing just a window.

Is there a setting somewhere that I need to look for?

Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Teams for education | Meetings and calls | Screen sharing

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-11-06T11:49:10+00:00

    Hi Jake Bigelow,

    Thanks for posting here, I’m very willing to help you😊

    I recommend you login Teams web client as a workaround firstly, on Teams web client, if you maximize the window, it will appear at Application Window tab, if you minimize, it will disappear.

    There are no settings to control this, please try to open these windows before you share the screen to see if it will appear. Then check the update of your Teams (click your profile->Check for update).

    Meanwhile, please try to do the following steps to clean Teams cache, and check the result

    ·  Quit Microsoft Teams if it show on the status bar.

    ·  Copy and paste the following location (%appdata%\Microsoft\Teams) into File Explorer.

    ·  Delete contents of the entire folder.

    ·  Restart Microsoft Teams.

    Also you can try to check with a different device or you can create a new windows user account to see if the issue persist.

    Any update will be appreciated.

    Best regards,

    Regina

    2 people found this answer helpful.
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  1. Anonymous
    2020-11-07T04:49:32+00:00

    This is a major bug in Teams.  The procedure outlined above has no effect.   Windows opened after the start of the meeting cannot be shared.  The workaround is to share the entire desktop and magnify the window you are trying to share.

    The Teams web client link in the post marked as the Answer is a link to Regina C's private hard disk and is not usable therefore.  In any event, it seems that the Teams web client only allows sharing of Powerpoint files, which is yet another bizarre bug.

    In any event, most users have no idea how to delete the AppData folder or use the web client. In any event, those solutions do not work.

    Microsoft needs to take bug reports seriously and fix their broken software.

    7 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2020-11-09T15:04:59+00:00

    This issue is not solved.

    4 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2020-11-07T15:51:31+00:00

    Thank you. This hadalready been filed as a Linux-only bug.  Actually, if affects all operating systems.

    Teams allows collaboration in meetings and chat.  During meetings,  if we cannot share content, we can only talk to each other, which really limits the work that can be done.  I think this is a major bug that should be prioritized.

    3 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2021-02-04T14:26:47+00:00

    I have noticed that resizing the Teams meeting window to full screen seems to resolve the issue. It seems that all open windows are not showing only when there is limited space in the "share screen" pop-up.

    It is still a bug in my opinion, but not nearly as annoying when there is a solution. The other workaround of sharing the whole screen is not bad, but I prefer to share one window at a time...

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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