Why does remote desktop screen go black and stay that way for a minute whenver I restore a window from a maximized state, or maximize the window?

I'm connecting to a Windows 7 machine with desktop composition and all that turned on. It starts out in a non-composition mode where you can see portions of windows being drawn, but then it freezes for about 10 seconds, then resumes with desktop composition. At that point, everything is very smooth, and all the Aero effects are rendered. This mode is actually much smoother and much more responsive than the non-composition mode.

The problem is, in this mode, it seems that any time the remote desktop window changes sizes, such as through maximizing or restoring it, its stops drawing the display. The window goes completely black either for a minute or indefinitely. It seems to still respond to mouse events however, as the mouse cursor changes when I move it, and when the rendering finally resumes, it seems to have performed the mouse operations.

Any idea why this occurs or if there's a way to fix it? Is this typical, or might it be some software on the remote machine that could be causing it?

Triynko

Posted 2014-05-23T18:26:42.637

Reputation: 2 666

This could be a bug. Try asking on the Windows support forums. – d3dave – 2014-05-24T09:15:03.477

LOL, yeah, I did, and their UNBELIEVABLY INEXCUSABLE response was basically that I should try turning off Aero Snap. Incredible. Oh, and I think they also suggested I uninstall Remote Desktop Protocol 8.0 if it was installed "as a test", lol. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/7e3f134b-932a-4b82-96be-645e2eada42d/remote-desktop-stops-rendering-the-display-whenver-the-window-is-resized?forum=w7itprogeneral&prof=required

– Triynko – 2014-05-28T05:01:23.527

Answers

As a work around, you can press Ctrl+Alt+End to bring up the Windows security screen, then press Esc to go back to the desktop. This should help "re-draw" the screen.

For a possible solution, you can try disabling the Application Experience service on the remote computer to see if that helps.

See Black Screen on Login after Remote Desktop sessions.

jaylweb

Posted 2014-05-23T18:26:42.637

Reputation: 101

Thanks. This works. It's annoying to have to do it, but it does force the window to redraw and begin rendering again. Interestingly, after clicking cancel and resuming work on the desktop, when I resize the window, instead of the screen going black, it shows the old cached copy of the Ctrl+Alt+End screen. Pressing Ctrl+Alt+End again seems to wake it up. I just wonder why this is happening whereas it never was a problem before. This just makes me wnat to use VLC and downgrade to XP. Still not touching Windows 8 until they bring back Aero Glass. – Triynko – 2014-06-01T18:52:59.790

I tried by just deactivating transparencies, and it is not doing the issue anymore! So in my case, it was transparencies in windows that would make RDP stop rendering the screen properly on a resize... The option is at the same place as Desktop Composition in Windows 7.

GTA_doum

Posted 2014-05-23T18:26:42.637

Reputation: 11

I was bothered by this myself this morning, so I fiddled about a bit. If you disable Desktop Composition under the Experience tab, this goes away. Hope it helps!

Jon S.

Posted 2014-05-23T18:26:42.637

Reputation: 11

1That's what I ended up doing, but it's nowhere near as smooth as desktop composition, and when you're developing an app which specifically uses the Aero Glass effects, and even switched the whole thing over to WPF since WinForms doesn't handle the alpha channel on controls correctly... turning off composition really kills the experience. It's like reverting to Windows XP. Glad I'm not the only one who has observed this behavior when resizing the window. – Triynko – 2014-06-01T18:45:56.093

I've figured out one more method. After entering your credential, Instead of pressing Enter just click on the arrow key.

Rohit Rohela

Posted 2014-05-23T18:26:42.637

Reputation: 131