We've got 6 Surface Pro 2 Tablets within our enterprise that we've been using for the executive team. We are implementing a new office display system and want to be able to mirror the Surface screens to TVs. We purchased a NetGear PTV3000 to utilize the built in Miracast. We originally couldn't get it to work at all. When pulling the charm bar and clicking Devices-->Project, it didn't give me an option to connect to a wireless display. Just the options for PC Screen Only, Duplicate, Extend, Second Screen Only. I had to disconnect it from the domain, so I logged in as local admin, joined a test workgroup, then rebooted. When it came back up on the WORKGROUP, I had a "Add a Wireless Display" option, and it worked! It beamed to my Miracast Receiver just fine. So, I rejoined it to the Domain, and lo and behold, the Add A Wireless Display option disappeared, and it wouldn't even find the device. We checked Group Policy and we can't find anything that would prevent it from working (our GPO runs on Server 2008 FWIW). And yes all drivers are up to date, all Windows updates have been applied, it's been rebooted plenty of times. Any ideas on why it doesn't work after being domain joined?

Thanks!

• Edited by WDT Ops Tuesday, January 21, 2014 9:35 PM

We actually were able to get it to work. We took a completely blank group policy and applied it to the Surface and it worked. That was with the firewall OFF. Then we slowly are working on turning the firewall on but with certain features. As soon as we can get the Firewall settings set to A: Something that's safe, and B: Something that allows this to work. But yea it's working great now with Firewall on and domained account. So for other folks having issues this seems to be a key point is the GPO and Firewall.

• Marked as answer by WDT Ops Wednesday, January 22, 2014 6:57 PM

I think I found the ACTUAL fix, or at least an alternative fix.

I had two Surfaces with the EXACT issue, as well as several other WIDI enabled machines that are joined to the domain.  I created an new OU just for the devices i wanted to connect to the miracast, blocked inheritance then added ALL policy objects that were applied to the WORKSTATIONS OU as well as a duplicated Default Domain Policy. One by one I removed every policy object and ran a gpupdate each time until I could connect to the wireless display.  Policy that seemed to do it:

Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings >Security Settings > Wireless Network (IEEE 802.11) Policies

The policy we were using to configure our wireless for our production network was an "XP" policy.  I recreated the connection policy as a "Policy for Windows Vista and Later Releases". 

The setting to pay attention to is on the "Network Permissions" tab: "Don't allow Wi-Fi Direct groups".  selecting that option prevents the machine from connecting to Wi-Fi Direct devices such as the Miracast.  I suspect the XP policy disables that or does not have a mechanism for setting it.

Note: All my DC's are Server 2008 and 2008r2, but I set the policy on my Windows 8.1 machine in order to get access to all the current policy objects.

• Proposed as answer by CraigWorkPAc Wednesday, June 04, 2014 11:34 PM
• Marked as answer by Bruce WoodingModerator Wednesday, April 29, 2015 12:31 AM
• Unmarked as answer by Bruce WoodingModerator Wednesday, April 29, 2015 12:33 AM

Thanks for finding and posting this. Below I'm including a few screenshots of the different policies (XP and the 'migrated/upgraded' Vista & Beyond policy). We got the upgraded policy by right-clicking the XP policy in the GPO editor and choosing the option to upgrade the policy.

Also, here is some more info on the relationship between Wi-Fi Direct and Miracast:

How is Miracast related to Wi-Fi Direct?

Wi-Fi Direct allows devices to connect directly to each other, without the need for a Wi-Fi AP, and requiring just the push of a button, the entry of a PIN, or tapping two NFC-capable devices together. Wi-Fi Direct allows source and display devices to discover one another and provides the underlying device-to-device connectivity for Miracast. Miracast builds upon Wi-Fi Direct with mechanisms to negotiate video capabilities, setup content protection (if needed), stream content, and maintain the video session. - See more at: http://www.wi-fi.org/discover-wi-fi/wi-fi-certified-miracast#sthash.vHtDZgXW.dpuf

• Edited by Roybotic Thursday, January 08, 2015 12:12 AM

Was not able to see this. Was able to do the following

If that doesn't work or doesn't show up. I was able to get it to work by doing the following:
* open regedit
* Go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Wireless
* Deleted Windows XP Folder
* reboot machine

not sure if this will stay permanent after a gpupdate but worth a shot