Hide the SHARA Wheel and toolbar from capture

SHARA can keep its Wheel and docked toolbar out of screen shares and recordings while your drawing stays visible. Open Settings, select the Tutor tab, open Wheel display settings and set Recording to Hidden. It is off by default, and you still see both on your own screen.

Turn on Hidden#

Do this once on the PC you present from. The Wheel and toolbar then stay on your screen but out of the picture viewers get.

Open SHARA Settings from the tray icon.
Select the Tutor tab.
Select the Wheel display settings button (top right of the tab).
Find Recording and choose Hidden. The other choice is Visible, which is the default.
Test it with the steps below before your real call.

The tooltip on Hidden reads “Requests hiding from supported Windows capture methods; availability depends on Windows and the recorder.” SHARA asks Windows for this and does not control what your meeting app does with it.

What Hidden covers#

From a read of SHARA 4.3 code on November 2, 2026. Hidden sets Windows’ “exclude from capture” on the Wheel window and on the toolbar window.
Item	Recording: Hidden	Recording: Visible (default)
The Wheel (`Ctrl+Space`)	Hidden from capture. You still see it.	Captured, so viewers see the menu.
The docked toolbar	Hidden from capture. You still see it.	Captured, so viewers see the bar.
The colour dialog opened from the toolbar	Hidden from capture while it is open.	Captured.
Your drawing (Laser, Pen, Arrow, Text)	Still captured. Viewers see it.	Captured.
The cursor halo	Not changed by this setting.	Captured.

In short: the controls disappear from the capture and the result of using them stays. A viewer sees a stroke appear, never the menu you picked the Pen from. The Wheel and toolbar page shows how to open each.

Test it before you go live#

Start a share or a recording the way you will on the day: share your entire screen in Teams, Zoom or Meet, or add a Display Capture source in OBS. For a quick check use the screen share test.
Open the Wheel by holding Ctrl+Space, and draw one stroke with the Pen.
Look at the other side. Ask a colleague, join the meeting on a second device, or play the recording back. You should see the stroke and no Wheel or toolbar.
If you still see them, open Settings again. If Recording says Visible, SHARA could not apply Hidden; see the next section.

Limits you should know about#

Windows has to be able to do it. The feature behind Hidden (WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE) was introduced in Windows 10 version 2004, which is also SHARA’s minimum build (19041). Microsoft says it works only when the Desktop Window Manager is composing the desktop (Microsoft Learn, SetWindowDisplayAffinity, read November 2, 2026).
If Windows or the driver refuses, SHARA puts the setting back to Visible on its own. The page you see in Settings always tells the truth about what is active.
It is not a security feature. Microsoft is explicit that it does not strictly protect content, for example from a photo of the screen. We would add that a hardware capture device that records the monitor signal is a different path, but we have not tested one.
Recorders differ. We have not checked every screen recorder and meeting app, so test yours.

When to leave it on Visible#

Leave Recording on Visible when the Wheel and toolbar are the thing you want people to see: a tutorial, a screen recording for your own training or a demo of SHARA itself. Switch to Hidden for a client call, a lesson or a stream where the menu would be a distraction. The setting is global, so it applies to your next share or recording as soon as you change it.

Questions#

Is hiding on by default?

No. The default is Visible, so a new install shows the Wheel and toolbar in shares and recordings. That helps when you are teaching how SHARA works, and you can switch it to Hidden when you present.

Will viewers still see my drawing?

Yes. Only the Wheel and the toolbar (and the toolbar’s colour dialog) are kept out of the capture. Ink, and the halo, are not changed by this setting. If viewers cannot see your ink at all, share the screen, not a window.

Does it work in Teams, Zoom, Discord, Meet and OBS?

It asks Windows to leave the windows out of capture, and the setting’s own tooltip says availability depends on Windows and the recorder. We have not tested every app, so run the short test above in the app you use before a real call.

Why did my setting go back to Visible?

SHARA asks Windows to hide the Wheel. If Windows or the display driver refuses, SHARA switches the setting back to Visible so it never shows a protection that is not active. Update Windows and your graphics driver, then set it to Hidden again and re-test.

Is this a security or privacy feature?

No. Microsoft says the display-affinity feature it relies on is not a DRM or security guarantee: for example, it cannot stop someone photographing the screen. Use it to keep a presentation tidy, not to hide secrets. Do not rely on it for anything sensitive on your screen.

Does it cost anything?

No. The Wheel and the docked toolbar are part of the free tier, and the Recording setting sits beside them in Settings. See Free trial and Pro for what the trial adds.

None of this worked. What now?

Email support@creatorkit.mashyo.com with your Windows version (press Win+R, type winver), the app you share or record with, and whether the Wheel or the toolbar still shows. Until it is fixed, keep the Wheel closed while you present.

Viewers see nothing at all? Share the screen, not a window. Setting up the call itself: Teams, Zoom, OBS, Discord or Google Meet.