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

2019-09-04T16:05:01+00:00

Yup, that's the fix I was referring to a few posts ago. Worked for me as well :)
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Anonymous

2019-09-04T16:06:24+00:00

Petr,

try this:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/remote-desktop-black-screen/63c665b5-883d-45e7-9356-f6135f89837a?page=2&tm=1567607695459

It turns off the WDDM usage for the remote desktop session and uses XDDM instead. It seems to have worked for some of us.
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Anonymous

2019-09-04T18:47:45+00:00

I am now seeing a new problem after installing the optional KB, without making any other changes than reverting to the "official" Q43/Q45 WDDM driver.

An RDP session is being locked by the host after 5 minutes or so and then disconnected. One can start a new session, but then it is locked again. If I reboot the host, then the RDP session is maintained for some period of time, but if it is idle for 5 minutes or so it is locked and the cycle repeats.
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