How to Add a Virtual Monitor

Last updated 31 July 2026

How to Add a Virtual Monitor

A virtual monitor is a display that exists only in software: Windows sees a real screen at the resolution you specify, but no cable and no panel are involved. Its desktop provides GPU-accelerated rendering for third-party applications. Backstage can then capture that desktop and use it as a live asset, making the virtual monitor the bridge between an external generative-content tool and a Backstage-driven installation.

Requires the Administrator role. Non-administrators see the list of existing virtual monitors but cannot add or remove them.

A virtual monitor is not a Backstage output or render target. Backstage does not render to the virtual monitor. Instead, a third-party application renders to it, and Backstage captures the result as a Virtual Desktop asset. For the Backstage-side capture workflow, see the Related section below.

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Before you start

  • You are signed in to System Management as an Administrator
  • The Brainsalt virtual display driver is installed — it ships with the server and is installed by a system software update
  • You know the resolution, refresh rate, and color depth the third-party application requires

Steps

1. Open the Virtual Monitors tab

In the System Management sidebar, under Configure > GPU, select Virtual Monitors. Any existing virtual monitors are listed in a table showing their name, resolution, refresh rate, and whether one is marked as primary.

2. Fill in the Add virtual monitor panel

Below the table, the Add virtual monitor panel has five fields: Name, Width, Height, Refresh, and Depth. The defaults describe a 1920 x 1080 monitor at 60 Hz with 8-bit depth. Give it a name that says what it is for — it becomes the display name Backstage and Windows show.

3. Add it

Select Add. The page reports the result and reloads a moment later with the new monitor in the table. Windows treats it as a display arriving — expect the desktop to rearrange briefly, exactly as it would when plugging in a screen.

4. Place your application on the virtual monitor

Open the third-party application and move or extend its window onto the virtual monitor's desktop. The application renders GPU-accelerated content there, just as it would on a physical display. In Backstage, the captured desktop appears as a Virtual Desktop asset that you can use in sequences, layers, and the node graph.

5. Remove one when it is no longer needed

Select Remove on its row and confirm. Anything currently capturing or rendering to that monitor loses its target, so stop the affected applications and repoint the Virtual Desktop asset in Backstage first.

Options explained

Setting

Description

Values / Range

Name

How the monitor identifies itself to Windows and Backstage. Choose something descriptive rather than the default.

Text — defaults to "Virtual"

Width / Height

Resolution of the virtual display. Match the content the third-party application will render, not an arbitrary screen size.

Pixels — defaults 1920 x 1080

Refresh

Refresh rate the virtual display reports. Match the frame rate of the content the application produces so playback is not resampled.

Hz — defaults 60

Depth

Color depth of the virtual display.

8 · 10

Advanced: running only the virtual monitor

In installations where the server has no physical displays attached and Backstage should capture exclusively from a third-party application, you can make the virtual monitor the only display Windows sees. This requires removing all other outputs across two separate tabs:

1. Remove every physical GPU output (Desktop tab)

Open Configure > GPU > Desktop. For each physical output, select Remove from desktop, or use Remove all from desktop in the toolbar to do it in one step. A removed output disappears from Windows entirely — including the NVIDIA Control Panel — but Backstage still sees and uses it. The virtual monitor is not listed on the Desktop tab, so it is unaffected.

2. Disable the BMC console (Options tab)

Open Configure > GPU > Options and tick Disable Console Monitor in Windows. The BMC console is the server's IPMI management video output — Windows sees it as an attached display even though it is not a GPU output. Disabling it detaches the BMC console from the Windows desktop immediately and re-applies the change at every startup.

Result

With both steps applied, the virtual monitor is the only display attached in Windows. The third-party application renders to it with full GPU acceleration, and Backstage captures that output and delivers it to, for example, a blended projection — all without any physical display connected to the server.

Confirm you can reach the server remotely before applying these changes. With every physical output removed and the BMC console detached, there is no local or console way to see the Windows desktop. The System Management web interface, VNC, and the Remote UI all work independently of which displays are on the Windows desktop — but verify at least one of them is working before you remove the last screen.

Common Mistakes

  • Treating the virtual monitor as a Backstage render target. Backstage does not output to a virtual monitor. It captures content from it. If you need a headless Backstage output, use a GPU Output routed to a forced EDID instead.

  • No Add panel on the page. The panel is hidden for non-administrators. Sign in with an Administrator account.

  • Picking a convenient resolution rather than the application's. A virtual monitor costs nothing to size correctly, and a mismatch means the content is scaled somewhere. Set it to exactly what the third-party application intends to render.

  • Refresh rate left at 60 for a 50 Hz show. The mismatch shows up as judder that is easy to blame on playback. Set the refresh to the show's frame rate.

  • Removing a virtual monitor that is still in use. Both the third-party application and the Backstage Virtual Desktop asset lose their target. Repoint or stop them first.

Tips

  • Virtual monitors persist across reboots — they are recreated automatically at startup, so the configuration survives a restart without any extra step.

  • Name them for their purpose rather than their size. A name like the show or the application they serve stays useful when the resolution later changes.

  • A virtual monitor is a practical stand-in during commissioning: build and test the full capture workflow before the third-party rendering hardware or software arrives on site.

  • There is no edit. To change a resolution or refresh rate, remove the monitor and add a new one with the values you want.

How to Capture a Virtual Monitor — the Backstage side: capturing a virtual monitor's desktop content and using it as a live asset.

How to Remove Outputs from the Windows Desktop — remove GPU outputs from the Windows desktop so Backstage uses them exclusively (step 1 of the single-display workflow).

Display Startup Options and Resetting the Display Configuration — Disable Console Monitor in Windows and other startup options (step 2 of the single-display workflow).

Display and GPU Configuration — the other GPU tabs and the order to work through them.

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