Remote Desktop Session Black after Minimize

remote desktopterminal-serverwindows-server-2000

PROBLEM: When I minimize a remote desktop session and restore it, the remote desktop screen shows up black. This only happens when connecting to a particular computer.

DETAILS: If I start clicking around in the black area, portions of the screen will start redrawing and showing up correctly. For example, if I leave a window open in the remote session and click where that window is located on the remote computer, then that window–and only that window–will redraw, and sometimes a portion of that window won't redraw (usually the toolbar).

And to clarify–the window only has to be minimized momentarily, so it doesn't seem to be a timeout issue. Clicking or typing in the remote session still causes the remote computer to respond appropriately. Disconnecting from the session and reconnecting restores the whole screen image, as does clicking all over the place in the black image (causing each section to redraw).

CONFIGURATION: This problem only happens for me when connecting to a particular computer (a W2K Server box configured to allow remote administration) and only with certain client computers. I've tried 7 different client computers with various versions of Remote Desktop (the OSes were: Win2K, Server 2003, Server 2008, Windows 7 RC, 3 XP) and two of them exhibit the problem (one is one of the XP boxes and the other is Windows 7). Those same computers can RDP to other computers without problem.

RESOLUTION ATTEMPTS: I have tried the following:

  • Disable the LOCAL screen saver as mentioned on Technet
  • Turned off bitmap caching in the client, as mentioned on many forums.
  • Updated to version 6.1 of the remote desktop client
  • Using mRemote (I doubted this would work since it uses MS's code for connecting to RDP servers)
  • Turning off all video acceleration.

QUESTION: Any ideas on what is causing this?

Best Answer

Solved the problem of RDP not coming back from the minimised position. It is because when minimised RDP may not redraw the gui.

The following registry change seems to have resolved the issue (XP SP3 32k).

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\ Created a new DWORD value and named it RemoteDesktop_SuppressWhenMinimized. Specified 2 as the value data.

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