Capturing a screenshot with the Zoom VDI app

The Zoom app for VDI supports redirecting screenshot requests from the virtual desktop to the VDI plugin. This allows the captured information to include the video from a Zoom Meeting or share session that can only be captured using the VDI Plugin.

Admins must enable a specific policy on the virtual desktop to provide this option, as it is not enabled by default.

This article covers:

Prerequisites for screenshotting with the Zoom VDI app

Note: Dell ThinOS VDI Plugins do not support screenshot.

How to enable the screenshot feature

The feature needs to be enabled by adding the DisableScreenshotOptimization policy to the virtual desktop and setting it to disabled (0).

Learn more about registry specific to VDI, as well as policies available for MSI deployments, which the VDI installer also supports.

How to take a screenshot with the Zoom VDI app

During a meeting with chat


Once the policy has been added, users will have the screenshot option available in the meeting chat controls, which sends the request to the VDI Plugin to capture the screen.

Note: For version 5.15.2, the VDI screenshot option is only available during a Zoom Meeting with in-meeting chat enabled.

  1. Start or join a meeting through the Zoom desktop app for VDI.
  2. In the meeting control toolbar, click Chat .
  3. Click the screenshot option .
    Note: If trying to screenshot the Zoom app, you will need to enable the Show my Zoom Windows to other participants when I am screen sharing setting within app settings. 
  4. Click-and-drag to select the portion of the screen you want to capture.
  5. (Optional) Use the annotation tools to add to the selected screenshot.
  6. Click Capture to confirm the screenshot capture.
  7. (Optional) In the To: drop-down menu, select the participant you want to chat with directly.
  8. Click  to send the screenshot to others in the meeting.

During a meeting or webinar without chat

In version 5.16.10, this capability was expanded to support taking a screenshot during meetings and webinars with chat disabled. Instead, a screenshot option was added to the Zoom menu in the system tray to generate the screen capture.

Screenshots captured with this method are saved to a Zoom folder inside the default Documents folder on the virtual machine. The files are named using the date and time combined with the name of the meeting.

  1. Locate the Zoom icon, found in the system tray.
  2. Right-click the Zoom icon.
    Additional options will appear.
  3. Click Screenshot.
  4. Click-and-drag to select the portion of the screen you want to capture.
  5. (Optional) Use the annotation tools to add to the selected screenshot.
  6. Click Capture to confirm the screenshot capture.