Video: Virtual Monitor - Asset for Backstage

Last updated 6 August 2026

Steps

A virtual monitor is a display that exists only in Windows — no cable, no panel, no GPU output consumed. Anything you put on it, Backstage can capture and use as an asset.

That makes it the way to get a third-party application on screen: run the application on the virtual monitor, drop the Virtual Desktop asset into the scene, and its window becomes content like any video file.

This is the companion to removing outputs from the desktop. Once the GPU outputs are gone from Windows, there is no desktop left for a third-party application to open on. The virtual monitor gives it somewhere to live — a desktop that exists purely to be captured, and that no projector is showing.

Before you start

  • Know the resolution the asset should be. The virtual monitor's size is the asset's size, so pick it for the content and not for a real screen.

  • Ideally the GPU outputs are already removed from the desktop, so Windows is not driving the walls.

  • Sign in as Admin. The GPU section is admin-only.

1. Open the Virtual Monitors page

In the Hub, select the server and click System Management.

Under Configure → GPU, choose the Virtual Monitors tab.

2. Add the monitor at the resolution you need

Under Add virtual monitor, set Name, Width, Height, Refresh and Depth, then click Add. The defaults are a 1920 × 1080 monitor at 60 Hz, which is what the video keeps.

It appears in the Virtual monitors table with its name, resolution, refresh rate and whether it is the primary display.

Pick the resolution from the content, not from habit. This monitor is never displayed anywhere — its only job is to be captured. Making it larger than the asset needs to be costs capture and composition work for pixels nothing will ever show.

3. Disable the console monitor

Servers with a BMC present a console monitor to Windows as well, and it is another desktop surface you almost certainly do not want.

Turn it off under Configure → GPU → Options, in the Startup & display behaviour panel: tick Disable Console Monitor in Windows, which detaches the BMC console from the desktop and re-applies that at every startup.

The same panel carries Restore Settings on Startup and Restore Settings on Display Change, which replay the applied resolution, colour and genlock state after a reboot or a layout change.

4. Confirm it in Windows

In the operating system's display settings, the virtual monitor is now the desktop — at the resolution you gave it, with the GPU outputs absent because they were removed, and the BMC console monitor gone.

5. Use it in Backstage

In Backstage, drop the Virtual Desktop asset into the scene. It shows the desktop content live — which means whatever application you have running on the virtual monitor.

Done when

The virtual monitor is listed on the Virtual Monitors page, Windows reports it as a display at the resolution you set, and the Virtual Desktop asset in Backstage shows that desktop's content on the scene.

What this depends on

Depends on

Why

The asset resolution you need

The virtual monitor's size is the captured asset's size.

Outputs removed from the desktop

Otherwise Windows still spans the walls and the virtual monitor is just one more screen.

A BMC, for the console monitor step

Only servers with a management controller present a console monitor to Windows.

Backstage

The Virtual Desktop asset is what turns the captured desktop into content.