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Remote Desktop Second Monitor Black Screen and Glitchy Behavior on Windows 11 25H2

Michael H 0 Reputation points
2025-12-12T17:43:39.1833333+00:00

I’m experiencing persistent Remote Desktop issues on Windows 11 Home (25H2) with a dual-monitor setup. After connecting to RDP, my second monitor stays black for up to a minute—mouse is visible, but no apps, wallpaper, or taskbar appear. This delay is disruptive, especially when apps open on that screen and can’t be seen, moved or used. Once active, the monitor is glitchy—clicks don’t register and responsiveness is poor. This never happened on my older Windows 10 PC.

My current system is high-performance:

Intel Ultra 9 285K @ 3.70 GHz, 64GB DDR5 RAM, RTX 5080 GPU (drivers updated). Win 11 Home 25H2.

I rely on RDP daily for photogrammetry and Lidar editing with my professional work, and this issue severely impacts productivity when limited to a single screen.

Does anyone have a known fix for this? I've tried downgrading display setting in RDP with no luck. Multi-monitor setups are standard for professional workflows, and Remote Desktop should support them reliably—especially now that Windows 10 support has ended and users are being pushed to upgrade. So this is extra frustrating. I've submitted a problem ticket to the feedback hub, but it doesn't look like anyone has even looked at it in over a month. And I have co-workers with the same issues so I know I'm not the only one.

Any help is appreciated!

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Apps
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  1. Harold Milan 12,600 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-12-12T18:36:01.15+00:00

    Hi,

    Windows often changes monitor layout after a reboot, especially following updates. If your Remote Desktop session stops spanning correctly, check your local monitor arrangement first monitors must share a common edge. Then, save your RDP settings with “Use all monitors” enabled. Next, run mstsc.exe /l in Command Prompt to list monitor IDs. Edit your .rdp file and add the selectedmonitors setting manually, choosing the zero-based IDs for the monitors you want.

     

    For example:

    selectedmonitors:s:2,0

    This places monitor 2 on the left in the remote session. If layouts change after updates, repeat the process.

     

    If these not helps I suggest You can post your phenomenon in Microsoft  feedback hub if it is more like a bug :

     https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/send-feedback-to-microsoft-with-the-feedback-hub-app-f59187f8-8739-22d6-ba93-f66612949332

     

     I hope this helps!

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