weird problem with RDP to Windows 10 - blank screen after minimizing

Hello,

I have a laptop & desktop - both running Windows 10 Pro latest. I daily RDP from my laptop to Desktop for last few years and no issues at all.

Today I find this weird problem where I'm able to RDP to my desktop but if I minimize the RDP window (or keep it idle for few seconds) then it displays blank screen. I then have to close the RDP window and reconnect to see the Remote desktop display.

The only change I remember is this month's windows updates. Did anyone experience this issue? please advise how to fix it.

I checked the RDP settings (which were never changed) and made sure "persistent bitmap caching" checked under "Experience" tab.

Thanks!

I totally agree with you. Same problem here. For years RDP worked well...
Build 17763.379 for both client and server.

I also specify that, in my case, reopening the RDP session solves the problem, but it's very frustrating...

Spiceworks claim that Microsoft want to discourage headless pc use - they'd rather you bought a server OS.

I think there may be something in this theory. I use 4 headless pcs as render nodes for Cinema 4D (using RDP to check temps etc) and since the last big update, they've been acting up. In the past, I just had to turn on the remote pcs and they'd boot and load up the render software + temp utility and be ready to use via LAN with no intervention required. Now they just hang at the welcome screen, and I've got to access each machine via RDP to get to the desktop stage. I've also seen the black screen described above.

I think the Spiceworks theory that if you want to run headless - buy the server OS, has some truth in it.

All my pcs are legit - started out life as Windows 7 - but it seems MS are withdrawing access to functions we all paid for.

Any suggestions for best, free alternative to RDP ?

Isn't this related to the top known issue with 17763.379? (Which actually started with 17763.253 in January.)

This occurs when two or more people use the same user account for multiple, concurrent login sessions on the same Windows Server machine, including Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and Terminal Server logons.
Symptoms reported by customers include, but may not be limited to: Cache size and location show zero or empty.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4489899

And ADV190010 | Best Practices Regarding Sharing of a Single User Account Across Multiple Users (Security Advisory, Published: 03/12/2019)

NMI said:

Isn't this related to the top known issue with 17763.379? (Which actually started with 17763.253 in January.)

This occurs when two or more people use the same user account for multiple, concurrent login sessions on the same Windows Server machine, including Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and Terminal Server logons

Should not be as you can only legitimately log on one user at a time to consumer editions. There are hacks to enable multiple log-in but that is outside scope of the question really.

Unless MS broke something by fixing something else of course.

badcrc said:

Any suggestions for best, free alternative to RDP ?

Everything else I tried (WebEx, TeamViewer et al) is much worse than RDP. If you are connecting from Linux to Windows Remmina is best of the bunch but it uses RDP anyway.

lx07 said:

Should not be as you can only legitimately log on one user at a time to consumer editions.

Via RDP perhaps, but I wondered if the same user was already logged in directly in these cases. (It does say including RDP.)

NMI said:

Via RDP perhaps, but I wondered if the same user was already logged in directly in these cases. (It does say including RDP.)

No you can't.

If you connect via RDP to (for example) Win 10 Pro it will immediately log you off your interactive session if you use the same user.

If you try RDP with a different user you get the 30s warning and then it will log off the other person.

Unless you patch the dlls you can't do it.

lx07 said:

If you connect via RDP to (for example) Win 10 Pro it will immediately log you off your interactive session if you use the same user.

Thanks. I didn't know that.

This is happening to me too. I hope they fix this issue rather than let it fester.

This is what happen if you minimize or leave untouched the session for a while...
Just one user defined, no concurrent sessions...