Office applications turns white after inactivity in RDP

Mike van Houwelingen | VHDS 45 Reputation points
2023-04-24T12:40:06.9333333+00:00

Hi everyone!

We have a RDS farm with multiple RDS Session Hosts, running Windows Server 2022 Datacenter and Office 2021 LTS. When logged in via RDP, the content in different Office applications disappears after a few seconds of inactivity. Sometimes it doesn't, but most of the times, it does. See screenshot: 2023-04-24 14_31_51

As you can see, the left one turns grey, however the right one stays active. When you click the left window, the page appears again. This only seems to happen in an RDP-session and not locally on the RDS via console.

What we've tried so far:

  • Install latest updates for Windows, Office and VMware
  • Opened a Word-file from the local drive instead of fileserver
  • Enabled and disabled Hardware Acceleration
  • Tried another RDP-client, on a Mac instead of Windows client
  • Safe mode of Word
  • Set the video memory of the RDS Session Host on VMware to 256MB

If you have any suggestions or additional questions, please let me know. Thanks!!

Office
Office
A suite of Microsoft productivity software that supports common business tasks, including word processing, email, presentations, and data management and analysis.
1,699 questions
Windows Server
Windows Server
A family of Microsoft server operating systems that support enterprise-level management, data storage, applications, and communications.
13,205 questions
Remote Desktop
Remote Desktop
A Microsoft app that connects remotely to computers and to virtual apps and desktops.
4,596 questions
{count} vote

Accepted answer
  1. Evan R 90 Reputation points
    2024-02-23T04:38:29.42+00:00

    Posting this in the main thread for more visibility, as it gets lost it other lower subcomments:

    So the issue with inactive windows of Office apps like Outlook going blank white in RDP/Citrix sessions appears to be caused by InkObj.dll, located at "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\Ink" for x86 and "C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Ink" on x64. Taking ownership of and renaming or otherwise removing this .dll fixes the issue, however on 64 bit systems it breaks the Snipping Tool which also relies on this .dll file

    Noticing that when InkObj.dll was not loaded that Outlook no longer showed the "Draw" feature, I stumbled upon a fix for the Office white screen problem that doesn't break the Snipping Tool: In Outlook (where we have had the problem) open up an email or compose a new one, then go File -> Options -> Customize Ribbon and disable the "Draw" ribbon feature under main tabs

    With the Draw ribbon item disabled for open or composing windows, inactive windows no longer turn white. Can also confirm it's the same fix in other Office apps like Word

    3 people found this answer helpful.

6 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Sjoerd van den Nieuwenhof 20 Reputation points
    2024-08-12T10:46:10.2233333+00:00

    Hi,

    I've tried all the suggestions, but it's not fixed.

    Is anyone having another idea?

    Regards, Sjoerd

    0 comments No comments

  2. Robert Gijsen 156 Reputation points
    2024-10-01T12:41:53.4666667+00:00

    Chiming in on this one. We have several RDS environments with Server 2022 and Office 2021 LTSC with exact the same issue. But it's not reproducable at will (so far) in our environment which makes it difficult to trace. In the past (2008 era) we've had several issues with clients unable to properly connect or getting the dreaded 'Protocol error'. That turned out to be the 'Configure compression for RemoteFX data' GPO back then. We have that not configured for RDS2022 so far, but I can check if that helps.

    Within a few weeks we will move to Office 2024 LTSC. I suppose that doesn't change things, given it's pretty much the same codebase? Has anyone tried that already?

    Does anyone have a ticket open with MS on this?


Your answer

Answers can be marked as Accepted Answers by the question author, which helps users to know the answer solved the author's problem.