Why is Projecting to This PC Greyed Out? Try These Fixes!

The other day I was playing around with Windows projection settings, and I noticed the option to project to this PC is greyed out. Why is projecting to this PC greyed out? I’m on the latest version of Windows, I have all the drivers installed, and I’m on a network.

After playing around with a bunch of settings, and doing a ton of research, I found a few fixes that could solve the problem.

We’ll go through them one by one, and I’ll explain a bit more about how wireless projecting works.

Why is Projecting to This PC Greyed Out?

Projecting to this PC could be greyed out because you either don’t have Windows wireless display feature installed or your Wifi adapter doesn’t support Miracast. These are relatively easy to fix and I’ll walk you through the steps below.

The thing is a lot of hardware has to play together to create support for wireless display features, which uses a technology called Miracast. The good news is most modern hardware, at least designed in the last decade, should natively support this feature.

But the problem could be with various components, for example, the motherboard, graphics card, network adapter, router, Windows 10 version, drivers, and many others. Luckily, in most cases, the problem can be narrowed down to a handful of components.

Enable Windows Wireless Display Feature

Windows wireless display is an optional feature that, sometimes, needs to be manually installed. To install the feature, you’ll need an active internet connection.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Click on the start menu
2. Type in “Manage Optional Features” and press enter.
3. On the top of the screen, under “Optional Features” click on “Add a Feature”
4. Type in “Wireless Display” and hit install
5. Let your computer download and install the feature, a reboot will be required
6. Once rebooted, type “Projection Settings” into the start menu
7. Is projecting to this PC still greyed out? Or do you have the option to turn it on?

If the option is greyed out, the problem is most likely network-related. Windows 10 already comes with support for Miracast, so as long as the above feature is installed, your PC should be compatible. Now let’s troubleshoot the possible network issues.

Since laptops already include Wifi cards, the steps below are not relevant to laptops but more for PCs.

If you have a laptop but projecting to this PC is greyed out, what you can do is open Device Manager, locate your Wifi adapter, open Properties, Advanced, and set Wifi mode to auto. You can also do this with a USB Wifi adapter.

Projecting to This PC Greyed Out on PC

If the projecting to this PC option is greyed out on your PC, the solution is to buy a new USB Wifi adapter and connect it to a network.

Wifi Adapter not Compatible:

To start, while Windows has released an update that says Miracast (screen sharing) is supported over ethernet, that doesn’t seem to work. What you need is a relatively modern (from 2012 or newer) Wifi adapter.

Solved: Buy a New USB Wifi Adapter

The good news is that USB Wifi adapters are ridiculously cheap, and you can even get one that has Bluetooth built-in.

I like this DLINK USB Wifi Adapter

It’s hard to say exactly which model will support Miracast, but most of the ones designed in the last few years should support the technology. If it doesn’t, you can always return it.

Once you have a new USB Wi-fi adapter, insert it into a spare USB port on your PC, and install any necessary drivers. You will know the adapter is working when you can see wireless networks in the bottom right-hand corner. Connect to your home’s Wifi network.

In the start menu, type in Projection Settings, and open the Projecting to this PC menu, the options should no longer be greyed out. Select Available Everywhere on Secure Network, choose a PIN option, and tap the Launch Connect App to Project to this PC.

From here you can cast media from your phone that supports Miracast to your computer’s screen. You can use also use it to cast wireless Samsung Dex, although you will need to install Dex for Windows before you can use it.

How to Project to PC From Android

Projecting to a PC from Android can be a little tricky because there are different names for the casting feature depending on the version of Android your phone is running at the model. In the case of my S20 FE, the casting feature is called Smart View.

Pull down the quick settings on your phone, and look for an option called Smart View. Tap on it and wait until your PC shows on the list. It will only show on the list if you enabled “Available Everywhere” under the projecting settings.

Enter the first-time PIN (show on your PC) and then your phone’s screen will be mirrored to your computer’s monitor. Pretty cool. You can also change the aspect ratio and rotate the phone to fill in more of your computer’s screen.

You can also project pictures from your phone’s gallery by tapping the Smart View icon in the top right corner and connecting your phone to your PC. It’s a fast way to show pictures on your phone to people on a bigger screen.

Old Wifi Adapters Might not Work (or Require Driver Updates)

Now, maybe you already have a USB Wifi adapter lying around. Is there a way to check if it’s compatible with Miracast? I had an adapter collecting dust, and after plugging it in, projecting to this PC was still greyed out.

My conclusion was my device does support the feature but the adapter is simply too old. In some of these cases, updating the drivers can work, but in my case, I already had the latest drivers.

Actually, the adapter I have no longer receives updates or support, it’s basically dead (lucky me!). It’s always best to check if you’re using the latest drivers for your network hardware.

The good news is I bought a new one, and the Projecting to this PC feature was no longer greyed out, and I was able to use it as designed. One cool use for this is wireless Samsung Dex.

How to Check if Wifi Supports Miracast:

The easiest way to check if your Wifi supports Miracast is to open CMD, type “netsh WLAN show drivers” and look for “Wireless Display Supported: Yes”. If you don’t have Wifi, it will simply say “There’s no wireless interface on the system”.

Another way to do this is to check your Wifi adapter’s version. Open CMD, and type in “Get-NetAdapter | Select Name, NdisVersion” (you can copy and paste it).

CMD should show your network adapter’s version. Your Wifi needs to be at least 6.3 to be compatible with Miracast. My old Wifi adapter was 6.1 with no way to update the drivers, so I ended up buying a new one.

Check if Your PC Supports Miracast

The best way to check if your PC supports Miracast is to type “dxdiag” into either the start menu or Run command (start menu + R). Save the information, find the file, and open it. In the section under “System Information” near the top of the file, it should say “Miracast: Available, with HDCP”.

Can You Cast to PC from Android?

No. You can’t cast media like YouTube to your PC because that uses the Chromecast protocol. You can use Miracast to screen-share from your phone to your PC or use Samsung Dex.

That’s It:

Miracast or wireless screen project is really cool and useful feature that not many people use to its full potential. If you follow these steps, the Projecting to this PC feature should no longer be greyed out.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post. Drop a comment if you have any questions or suggestions!