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Question from Margaret: Rick, my daughter is in the 11th grade and she is taking a couple of computer classes. She’s having a problem that I hope you can help her with.
In her classes the students use their own laptops at their desks to follow along with the teacher and take online tests and quizzes.
The problem she’s having is the kids sitting to her right and left cheated on their exams by looking at her screen.
Is there a screen setting or something that she can use to make it hard for them to see her screen? She’s sure they’ll try to do the same thing next semester.
Her laptop is an Acer Aspire E15 with Windows 10.
Rick’s answer: Margaret, cheating is a common problem in settings such as the one your daughter is in with her classes. There are two ways that she can go about preventing others from seeing the contents of her screen:
1 – She can try turning the brightness down to a level where the images and text on the screen can only be seen from a very close distance.
2 – She can use a Privacy Filter to make the screen “readable” only from the straight-on direction. Anyone trying to peek at the screen from an angle would see nothing but a very dark screen.
Since your daughter’s laptop has a 15.6 inch screen, this one should work nicely.
She can try the brightness tweak first to see how well it works for her. If not, she can get one of the privacy screens.
I hope this helps, Margaret. Best of luck to your daughter as she completes her Junior year!