Windows 10 V1903 black screen with Remote Desktop

Anonymous
2019-05-24T01:45:13+00:00

I upgraded my secondary machine from 1809 to 1903. When I access it now using Remote Desktop all I get is a black screen in the RDP windows. I then upgraded my primary machine to 1903 hoping that would help, but no. Fortunately I also have GoToAssist installed so I was able to log into the secondary machine that way and checked for updates, still no help. Finally I reverted it back to 1809 and Remote Desktop once again works. I could keep using GoToAssist but RDP over my local LAN is much faster.

As long as this version as been (more or less) gold before going public, I can't possibly be the first one with this issue. It's no big deal to me that my secondary is running 1809, it's primarily a file server, but upgrading would be nice.

Granted, that secondary system is an older Core2 Quad, but at 3.3GHz and 8GB of memory and a SSD, it's plenty fast enough. I suppose I could try a different video card, but it shouldn't be necessary for a feature update.

Anyone have some insight into why RDP isn't working. I've already been through all the "guesses".   :-)

*Modified title for accuracy*

*Original title: Windows 10 1903 (May update) black screen with Remote Desktop*

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Internet and connectivity

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Anonymous
2019-07-14T03:31:57+00:00

Workaround reported here is to set the group policy to force RD sessions to use XDDM instead of WDDM:

Gpedit.msc: Computer Configuration->Administrative Templates->Windows Components->Remote Desktop Services->Remote Desktop Session Host->Remote Session Environment

Moderator's note:

If Group Policy method doesn't works, open administrative Command Prompt, type this, and press Enter key:

REG ADD “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services” /v “fEnableWddmDriver” /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Microsoft has also released update KB4512941, which addresses this issue:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4512941/windows-10-update-kb4512941

The update page mentions:

  • Addresses an issue that displays a black screen when you use Remote Desktop to connect to a machine running Windows 10, version 1903.

You can install KB4512941 and this would resolve the issue for you. 

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Anonymous
2019-05-30T19:52:43+00:00

In my case all Intel G41 drivers currently available, from Intel (2009), and from Microsoft (2013), showed black screen with RDP, even though they are Ok with the monitor connected to the PC.

So I've decided to use the "Microsoft Basic Graphics" driver, shown in the compatibility list when I tried to update the driver manually, and now RDP works.

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-07-12T01:47:01+00:00

    I don't know if this will work with all of you, but it just worked for me.

    Using the old PsTools library (download here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/pstools), I used PsKill.exe to kill the explorer.exe process, then that enabled me to open up Task Manager on my remote machine to re-execute the explorer.exe process.

    Step 1:

    Attempt to RDC into your remote computer. Should be black screen.

    Step 2:

    From your local machine, in Command Prompt, run

    PsKill.exe \yourcomputername explorer.exe

    You may need to use the -u parameter to specify a specific user

    Step 3:

    On the remote machine, press Ctrl+Alt+End, then select Task Manager

    Step 4:

    In Task Manager, under File, select Run New Task, then type explorer.exe

    Those steps did it for me.

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-07-12T05:19:49+00:00

    Black screen can be caused by a variety of reasons. In this thread we are focusing on one that happens in a specific scenario:

    1. You run Windows 10 may update (1903)
    2. You have a specific old Intel GPU driver for Q45, Q43, G45, G43, G41, B43  and few other chipsets. Driver version: 03/11/2013, 8.15.10.2702

    For this specific scenario the workaround is disabling the driver.

    There might be other old GPUs with the same issue, but we have not seen any reports.

    work computer i'm trying to rdp into has an old Radeon HD7770 GHz

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-07-12T05:31:06+00:00

    One possible workaround, as mentioned in the "master" report below: Using the modern RDP app. Can someone test?   Update: Tested here. Doesn't work.

    Has anyone tried connecting to a 20H1 build installed on a system that shows the problem?  I'm beginning to wonder if it's even corrected there.

    There was a black screen RD issue in the 18323 release notes in January, but with mention of these adapters, I think it's a different issue (and I don't think the Registry workaround applies to us):

    "You may consistently see black screens when using Remote Desktop, DisplayLink, or Miracast if you are on an AMD or Nvidia driver. We’re working on a fix, but in the meantime, you can work around this issue by running the following command: reg add HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Dwm /v EnableFrontBufferRenderChecks /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f."

    There is precedent for glaring problems that are reported slipping through the testing process, as we saw with both feature updates in 2018. The problems back then were data-loss issues, so we're not talking the same scale problem, but still.

    With that in mind, I took a little tour through the Feedback app for this issue. These are just some of the ones that I found:

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