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

2019-08-22T19:09:08+00:00

Another "solution" is to use "RD Client App" (from Microsoft) from an Android Device. This works for me. With MSTSC from 1903 my PC hangs itself...
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Anonymous

2019-08-22T16:35:21+00:00

The PREVIEW version of the next update, 18362.325, was made available yesterday. Direct links here, for those not in the Release Preview ring.

No word on whether it fixes the issue, but I think the chances are good.

64-bit:

http://download.windowsupdate.com/c/msdownload/update/software/updt/2019/08/windows10.0-kb4512941-x64_78bc14a0f0e87a604c3460f6856b3fa476861741.cab

32-bit:

http://download.windowsupdate.com/c/msdownload/update/software/updt/2019/08/windows10.0-kb4512941-x86_8ed6a9037a84294f81d53e169d96259e5409adeb.cab

How to install a .CAB file:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/66346-install-cab-file-windows-10-a.html
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Anonymous

2019-08-22T16:00:37+00:00

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.

Of course the problem is not with the drivers - is it?

I have an old HP Compaq v6133eu that I use for legacy testing. This has an Nvidia GeForce Go 6150 whose driver has been modified specifically to work with an AMD Turion TL-50 x64 processor. This system works fine with RDP on 1903

However I also have a later Acer Aspire 5338 that uses the Mobile Intel 4 Graphics Chipset driver and this DOES NOT work with RDP on 1903

It would be helpful if you could publish the nature of the new compatibility checking that is taking place with RDP on 1903 so we can decide whether there is a way we can mitigate by driver modification.

I look forward to your reply
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