Instructions

Everything you need to set up PiP Screen, drive it fast, and fix the things macOS makes confusing.

Quick start

1
Download and open. Unzip the download and drag PiP Screen to Applications. Releases are notarized by Apple — the app opens with a normal double-click.
2
Turn the screen on. Click the pip icon in the menu bar and flip Virtual screen on.
3
Grant Screen Recording. macOS asks the first time — it's how the preview window sees the virtual display; nothing is recorded or sent anywhere. Grant it in System Settings, then use Relaunch PipScreen in the menu (macOS only applies this permission to a freshly launched app — the menu shows a green reminder until you do).
4
Put windows on it. The virtual screen sits next to your real one: drag a window past the edge of your screen, or use the window's title-bar menu › Move to "PiP Screen", or Mission Control. The floating PIP window shows everything live.
5
Optional — enable clicking into it. For Click Into Screen mode and Interact mode, grant Accessibility when prompted (System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility). This one takes effect immediately — no relaunch.

The two permissions, explained

Permission	Used for	Notes
Screen Recording	Rendering the live preview inside the PIP window.	Needs a relaunch after granting — the menu offers the button. macOS also re-confirms capture apps monthly ("Continue to Allow"); that prompt is system behavior, not the app.
Accessibility	Delivering your own clicks and keystrokes into the virtual screen (Click Into Screen and Interact).	Takes effect immediately. Without it, macOS silently drops the forwarded clicks — they don't fail loudly, they just don't land.

PiP Screen reads nothing from other apps, makes no network connections, and collects nothing. Everything stays on your Mac.

Driving the PIP window

The floating window has three mouse modes — switch in the menu under Mouse, or with the three buttons in the control strip that appears when you hover the PIP:

Move the PIP (default) — dragging moves the window, scrolling zooms, dragging pans while zoomed. The PIP is a viewer.
Click Through — the PIP ignores the mouse entirely; clicks land on whatever is behind it. Perfect for a ghost overlay. Switch back from the menu (the window can't hear you anymore).
Click Into Screen — a teal border appears, and clicks, drags, scrolls, and right-clicks on the PIP land on the virtual screen at the exact spot you point at — mapped through any zoom or crop. Your pointer stays put on the PIP. Needs Accessibility.

The control strip appears under the PIP when you hover (above it when the PIP sits near the bottom of the screen). It carries the mouse modes, crop, reset, aspect lock, interact, hide, and opacity — hover any button and the strip's bottom line tells you what it does. It shows itself once after launch so you know it's there.

Shortcuts

Shortcut	What it does
`⌘ drag` on the PIP	Move the window — works in every mouse mode, even zoomed or click-in
`Scroll / pinch` on the PIP	Zoom toward the cursor
`Drag` on the PIP (while zoomed, Move mode)	Pan around the screen
`Double-click` the PIP	Reset zoom and crop
`Drag an edge or corner`	Resize (holds shape while Lock aspect ratio is on)
`Esc` (while cropping)	Cancel the crop
`⌘ Esc` (in Interact mode)	Leave Interact from anywhere
`Esc` (in Interact mode)	Goes through to the virtual screen — cancels dialogs there, doesn't exit
`⌘ Q` (menu open)	Quit PiP Screen

Interact mode

When you need to actually work on the shared screen: toggle Interact with virtual screen in the menu (or the strip's Interact button). The virtual screen fills your display as a live, capture-proof viewer, and your clicks, drags, scrolls — and after clicking a window, your typing — land inside it. Your real pointer never leaves your screen, and nothing about the display setup changes, so an active share never blinks.

A banner reminds you on entry: click a window there, then type.
Leave with ⌘ Esc, the menu bar icon, or the toggle.
Black bars on the sides? Your MacBook's screen isn't 16:9 — pick the Match built-in resolution preset in the menu.

Sharing it in a call

Pick "PiP Screen" in the share picker of Zoom, Meet, or Teams — it appears as its own named screen. The optional marker wallpaper makes it unmistakable in the thumbnails (and reminds you how to move windows there). Two guarantees:

Share the virtual screen → viewers see only what you put on it.
Share your main screen → viewers never see the PIP overlay; it's excluded from capture at the OS level. Verify yourself with ⇧⌘3 — the PIP won't be in your own screenshot.

Troubleshooting

The PIP is black, or says it needs permission.

Grant Screen Recording in System Settings › Privacy & Security, then use Relaunch PipScreen from the menu — the permission only applies to a freshly launched app. If you clicked "Check Again" and the menu shows a green "permission granted" note, the Relaunch button is the missing step.

Clicks in Click Into Screen or Interact do nothing.

Grant Accessibility (System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility). macOS drops forwarded clicks silently without it. The menu shows an orange warning with an Open System Settings button whenever this is the problem.

Interact shows an empty desktop.

That is the virtual screen — it has no windows yet. Right-click it: a context menu appearing proves your input is landing. Move windows there by dragging past your screen's edge, or a window's title-bar menu › Move to "PiP Screen".

The preview keeps failing.

After repeated failures the menu shows a Retry button next to the error. If the virtual screen itself was removed by the system, the menu says so — the Virtual screen switch brings it back.

Zoom or crop feels vertically flipped.

A rare graphics-stack quirk. Run this in Terminal and relaunch the app:

defaults write com.local.pipscreen PSFlipViewportY -bool true

PiP Screen crashed at launch and now won't auto-start.

That's deliberate: after a crash during screen creation, auto-start is disabled so you never get a crash loop — the menu explains, and the Virtual screen switch tries again. To reset the app to factory settings:

defaults delete com.local.pipscreen

"PiP Screen" isn't in my call's share picker.

Give it a beat — a freshly created display registers with capture apps a few seconds later. Close and reopen the share picker.

I hid the PIP and lost it.

Menu bar icon → Show PIP. Flipping the Virtual screen switch on always brings the PIP back too.

Good to know

Opacity runs 15–100% (menu slider or the strip) — at low opacity the PIP becomes a ghost overlay you can keep over your work, and Click Through mode makes it untouchable.
Crop to just the region you care about: strip → crop → drag a rectangle. The window re-shapes to match. Double-click resets.
Resolutions: 720p, 1080p (default), 1200p (16:10), 1440p, or Match built-in — with Retina on, the virtual screen renders crisp at 2×.
Open at Login (menu footer) keeps the screen ready on the road.
The menu footer shows the version and build — include them when you report a problem, they're the first thing needed to help you.
Requires macOS 15 (Sequoia) or later.