Getting started

This takes about five minutes. The setup notes for Zoom, Meet, Teams, Loom and OBS cover a few app-specific details.

Not sure what to share? Choose a sharing setup for your meeting app and what you need to present.

1. Install and allow permissions

Open the .dmg, drag ScreenVeil to Applications and open it. macOS will ask you to allow Screen Recording, which ScreenVeil needs to build the Privacy Screen window. Hide on My Mac also needs Accessibility so it can move windows. The app walks you through whichever one your mode needs.

2. Start the Privacy Screen

Choose Privacy Screen mode. ScreenVeil opens a window called Privacy Screen that shows your screen without your private apps, and that's the window you'll share. It's built with Apple's ScreenCaptureKit.

3. Pick your private apps

Choose the apps you don't want anyone to see. They disappear from the Privacy Screen window but keep working normally on your Mac. Everything else on your screen still shows.

ScreenVeil works app by app. It can't hide one browser tab or a line of text inside an app you're sharing, so close private tabs first. Banners from macOS Notification Center are left out of the Privacy Screen window by default. We've tested this on macOS 26.1. Pop-ups an app draws itself can still appear unless that app is private.

To hide one window instead of a whole app, open the ScreenVeil menu and expand Hide a window. This suits Google Meet in its own Chrome window: the call stays out of the share while your other Chrome windows stay in. The same list is in Settings → Sharing under Specific windows. Your choices reset when you stop the Privacy Screen.

4. Share the window

In your meeting app's share menu, pick the Privacy Screen window. If you share your whole display or a different window, ScreenVeil can't filter it. Starting ScreenVeil doesn't pick the window for you. You still choose it in the meeting app.

Before an important call, do a quick test. Share to your phone or a second computer, or make a short recording and play it back. Test again after you update macOS or your meeting app, or change displays.

Zoom: open Zoom Settings → Share screen → Advanced and turn on Share selected app window only. With it off, other ScreenVeil windows showed up on top of the shared window in our tests, even when we picked a single window. See Zoom's advanced sharing settings.

Keep the Privacy Screen window open while you pick it from the share menu. Once sharing starts, ScreenVeil hides it from your own view, and you can also press Escape to hide it. If it doesn't appear in the share menu, choose Show Privacy Screen from the ScreenVeil menu and try again. Leave ScreenVeil running during the call.

5. If something slips

Press ⌘ ⇧ B or click Cover feed, and the people on the call see a cover screen instead. Try both once before the call. If you can't tell what they're seeing, stop sharing in the meeting app.

Using Hide on My Mac instead

Hide on My Mac hides or moves your private apps on your real desktop, so you can share your whole screen. You can't keep using those apps the way you can with the Privacy Screen, and if you reopen one, or share a different display, it shows. Look at what you're sharing before you carry on. Neither mode stops other apps on your Mac from recording your screen.

Restoring a purchase

While online, choose Restore Pro in ScreenVeil and confirm the email you used at checkout. Use the same email on each of your Macs. Your locally saved trial email does not restore a purchase.

If you bought before verified accounts were available, contact support with your original receipt so we can verify ownership. Build 34 and later keep older purchase records for recovery, but do not automatically unlock Pro from them. Please don't buy it again to resolve a restore problem.

Using Pro offline

Build 34 and later can keep Pro available during connection or service outages for up to 72 hours after a successful online purchase check. Stay signed in on that Mac. Settings shows when offline access expires; reconnect and refresh your purchase before then. Earlier builds do not include this offline access window.

This window does not change your one-time purchase or add a renewal charge. After it expires, connect to verify access before starting a new session. An ongoing protection session is not interrupted by a billing change. If the app asks you to check the date and time, correct your Mac's clock and refresh while online.