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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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

2019-07-30T09:04:57+00:00
Hello!

I understand that the discussion for Remote desktop issue but after a long browsing I think this topic is most relevant.

many our computers after the 1903 update have these issues:
1. Black screen after boot up.
2. Black screen when user sign out.
3. Black screen with active cursor when using remote desktop connection.
Affected computers (all machines with Intel CPU and most of them with iGPU):

Dell Optiplex 7010 / 7020

Dell Latitude E5420/ E5430 / E7440

Dell Precision 5510

Have to upgrade over a hundred machines from Windows 7 OS to Windows 10 but cant until this issue will be fixed.

Tried many fixes which i found but unfortunately unsuccessfully. (tried uninstal graphic drivers, use microsoft graphic driver, use newest gpu drivers, set policy to use XDDM driver and so on).

Talking about unsupported older Intel graphic chipsets i tried set in to optiplex machine 3 different GPU'S (N8400GS / GT710 / HD5670) and use with microsoft and manufacturer driver but still get black screens.

Another thing:Dell Precision 5510 w/Intel HD Graphics 530 and Nvidia Quadro M1000M get black screens (~4 years old machine) and HP t5740e with Intel 4 series Express chipsets works just fine (~8 years old machine).

Hope this problem will be resolved soon...
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Anonymous

2019-08-04T15:31:19+00:00

Denis - Thanks for your post. Once this issue is fixed, can you check with the team that works with the customer entries made in the Windows Feedback app? This Remote Desktop app issue was reported multiple times in the Feedback app but there really isn't any response in the Feedback app showing that MS has recognized that there is an issue.

This forum is much more valuable than the Feedback app. Thank you!

There’s a known issue with some of the old display drivers.

Display drivers report some of their capabilities upon load. In previous Windows versions this reported data wasn’t used or verified. Because of that, some of the old versions of the legacy display driver may report invalid data and it would be ignored. Starting with Windows 10 1903 RDP uses this data to initialize the session.

The best option is to install an updated display driver from the hardware manufacturer. If the new version is not available, you can workaround this by disabling the problematic driver in the device manager.

Our team has identified the issue and we are currently verifying the fix that will dynamically switch to the software renderer if the problematic driver is detected.

I will this thread when the fix will be included to the Windows Insider release.
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Anonymous

2019-08-04T15:54:23+00:00

It should have said:

"If the new version is not available [and let's face it, for this vintage of hardware, it won't be], you can workaround this by simply using the appropriate group policy mentioned a little earlier in the thread."
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