I'm a Zoom host, using Windows 10 Home on a laptop. Sometimes my participants complain about seeing solid gray rectangles on their screen. This happens when I share a process that is showing an image or video full screen. These boxes could be caused by various windows on my computer: the two rectangular Zoom meeting control rectangles, the Zoom Participants box, the Zoom Chat box, or other apps such as file explorer or browser. When I share a full screen image or video, I want my participants to see only that, not additional overlaying gray boxes. Is there a setting for this? If not, when are the gray boxes shown and when are then not shown? Note: web searches show no information about gray boxes or rectangles caused by Zoom.
Zoom meetings: how to eliminate gray boxes
zoom-meeting
Related Solutions
This is using an elephant gun to swat a fly; I suggest trying other solutions first, but since I have no solution for the mystery 1132 error (and apparently neither does Zoom right now...)
Use Ubuntu on your PC alongside Windows, without removing Windows. Ubuntu's installer has a specific option for this, and Zoom supports Ubuntu Linux. Then, you can reboot your PC into Linux, use your PC with Zoom, and access files in your Windows filesystem as needed during the teleconferences.
There are multiple different flavours of Ubuntu available to choose from at https://ubuntu.com/download/flavours ; some are more Mac-like, such as Ubuntu Budgie. They all are downloaded and created in the same way; almost all use the same installer program, and those which don't ask the same questions during install.
You do not need to actually install Ubuntu to use it; it will run from your LiveUSB (more on that below) without disturbing your Windows operating system, programs, or data files. You can also access your Windows data files with Ubuntu's programs (like using Ubuntu's LibreOffice Calc to open an Excel spreadsheet or Libreoffice Write to open a Word document).
Now, let's make a LiveUSB.
Download Ubuntu's ISO file at https://ubuntu.com/download
Next, check for download errors by https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-how-to-verify-ubuntu
Create a LiveUSB following these instructions on your Windows PC https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-create-a-usb-stick-on-windows#0
A 4GB or larger USB flash drive AKA pen drive is required to make the LiveUSB; it will erase whatever's on the USB flash drive, so make sure nothing's on there before doing this!
Larger flash drives let you set up 'persistence' so you can add programs to the LiveUSB and use them the next time you reboot, or save data files on the LiveUSB you may have downloaded or copied from your Windows drive.
LibreOffice and many other Ubuntu Linux apps (included, free) are interoperable with Microsoft Office and many other Windows apps; you can open a Microsoft Office file, edit it and save it with LibreOffice, then come back later and use it again with Microsoft Office.
Once you make a LiveUSB, you can either boot your PC with it and use Ubuntu on it without installing. Yes, this gives you an emergency backup in case Windows completely crashes, one you can use on any PC (or Intel Mac) in your household. If that's all you want, you never need to install Ubuntu Linux on your PC, just use it.
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If you want to install Ubuntu on your PC alongside Windows, follow these steps https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-install-ubuntu-desktop
When you get to step 6, Allocate Disk Space, choose the first option, Install alongside Windows and tell it to give 30 GB to Ubuntu. It will automatically shrink the NTFS filesystem of Windows and make its own Linux ext4 filesystem to put the Ubuntu OS in.
When it asks where to put GRUB, tell it /dev/sda (not /dev/sda1) or /dev/nvme0 if your PC has an NVMe (aka PCIe) SSD instead of the traditional SATA SSD or HDD.
When it completes, it will reboot your PC and thereafter give you the choice of booting into Ubuntu or into Windows each time you reboot or power up.
Superuser.com has an allied Q&A specialty site just for Ubuntu and its flavours at https://askubuntu.com for questions and free support, or you can ask and get help here.
Best Answer
I figured it out myself, with some experimentation, running as host and participant in the same meeting. The solid dark gray boxes are clearly a security mechanism by Zoom to prevent participants from seeing other windows on top of the shared window.
Why should participants be able to see other windows, you ask? Well, it's simple and complicated at the same time. Instead of simply sending the video being shown directly to the participants, Zoom intercepts the hardware to capture the data as it is being displayed. So you see the topmost shared window AND any windows that are on top of it! Graying out the window prevents participants from seeing whatever the host is doing, for security.
So the solution appears to be pretty simple: just turn OFF the "optimize for showing video" option. Then Zoom simply sends the shared window, again and again (at 6 to 30 frames per second, depending on source and destination bandwidth) to the participants and ignores other windows. In fact, with Optimization off, you can even minimize all windows and/or return to the desktop, and the participants continue to see the shared window only.
For the Zoom meetings I host, I want the best experience for my participants, so I set up muting and other options the way I want, then I show the video in a video player, share the player output, and optimize it. I make sure that all other windows are never displayed on top of the video on my screen while the video is running, and I keep the cursor at the extreme lower right so it is not seen. I avoid any use of the cursor or of Zoom features while I am playing a video. This works perfectly for me, because we don't use chat or other features when playing videos.