When connecting to a Windows Remote Desktop Services Server (Terminal Server) using the Microsoft Remote Desktop Client, you may notice black bars across all windows in the screen. The issue can occur when connecting to any version of Windows Server (Windows Server 2003, 2008, 2008R2, 2012, 2012R2, 2016 or 2019) or Desktop OS (Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10). This can be caused by corruption of the bitmap caching. There are two ways to solve this issue:
Option 1: Disable Persistent Bitmap Caching
- Open the Remote Desktop Client (mstsc)
- Navigate to the Experience tab
- Uncheck the box for Persistent Bitmap Caching
- Optionally, save the connection if it was previously saved
- Relaunch the client and test
Option 2: Clear the Client Cache for Remote Desktop
- Open a File Explorer window
- Navigate to c:\users\username\appdata\local\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Cache
- Clear the contents of the Cache folder
- Relaunch the client and test
The black bars should now be cleared.
This worked perfectly! Thanks!