Windows 10 V1903 black screen with Remote Desktop

Anonymous

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*

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous

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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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

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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148 additional answers

Anonymous

2019-07-17T01:13:24+00:00

Hello!

I recently upgraded my Win 10 system from version 1803 to 1903. My graphics card is GeForce 610, date and version of my driver is: 23.03.2018, 391.35.

When trying connect to this computer through the RDP everything is in OK for some time (and in the device manager during the session, I see the following newest device that I never saw before: Microsoft Remote Display Adapter), I can work remotely, but after some time (it happened twice after about half a day and because of this I was forced to downgrade for Win 10 1803 version) my session ends and I can no longer connect to this computer.

Soon after, when I enter my computer directly, I see that all my programs are closed (like it was not even opened) and I lose all my work. In the system error log, I see many following errors: dwm.exe stopped working.

Can you please tell if this is related to the situation described in the topic? Do the rest people found too that all of their programs suddenly stopped their work after RDP session is stopped?

Thanks.
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Anonymous

2019-07-17T18:04:56+00:00

For anyone interested, CU KB4505903, which translates to 18362.263, is in the Release Preview ring now. This is likely what's to be released publicly in one of the two Tuesdays remaining in July.

It's unknown if it fixes the issue, but it makes sense that it would.
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Anonymous

2019-07-19T13:42:12+00:00
Windows 1803 -> RDP Windows 1903

Can confirm this issue is generally around the older iGPUs, particularly the Intel G41-45 series chipset drivers.

Workaround
1. go into device manager, disable the intel graphics driver from the rightclick menu
2. reboot
3. set local graphics properties (microsoft driver doesnt allow 1920x1080.
4. RDP away, can keep RDP options such as 32bit colour depth, and resolution
The RDP session should retain the 1080 resolution, however natively it looks shocking. The user in my scenario is primarily WFH so not much of an issue unless group policy prevents graphics display preferences for users.

My issue was we had cloned the drive to an SSD, and made firewall changes, so trying to narrow down the cause was a pain. Thanks to everyone who has provided potential fixes.

Good Luck.
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