remote desktop will not go on dual monitors all of a sudden

Question

I have a remote desktop app that I use for working from home on my all in one. Up until the morning it worked on 2 monitors (my HP all in one with Windows 10 Home and my acer monitor) just fine. What changed? I tried all of the fixes listed so far but nothing is working. HELP! I need 2 monitors.

Answer 1

HI EspinoJessenia-6566,

1.What's the model of your HP all in one computer? for example HP 66 Pro G2

2.Did you try to unplug and plug-in the monitor VGA/DP/HDMI cable to your HP all-in-one computer?

3."I have a remote desktop app "
Do you use rdp file to remote access the remote server?

4.Did you try to update display card driver on your local problematical computer?

5.Could you please enter winver in command prompt on remote computer to look the OS version?

6.If we open "Remote desktop connection" app and set "use all my monitors for the remote session" like below picture, then enter the remote computer ip/FQDN, will the same issue happen?

7.What's the resolution about both monitors (HP all-in-one monitor and Acer monitor)?

8.Are you administrator of remote server?

Using Multiple Monitors with Windows Remote Desktop
https://support.steadfast.net/knowledgebase/article/View/107/3/using-multiple-monitors-with-windows-remote-desktop

============================================

If the Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Answer 2

This same issued happened to me when I updated my Nvidia drivers for my GTX 1660ti. When I log into remote desktop with dual monitors my secondary monitor does not refresh and appears to not work.

Through trial and error I found that I could get the second monitor to refresh by either hovering my mouse over the connection bar, or by pressing the windows key. (and as long as I'm working on the second monitor it works fine, but the second I use anything on the primary monitor monitor 2 stops refreshing, until I once again hit the windows key/hover over the connection bar).

What I believe is happening is that the new video drivers detect an application is using "full screen" mode and locks it down to one monitor. I'd sure love a way to fix this because it drives me nuts. Everything worked fine for a year, then a driver update breaks is.

Note: One fix/workaround is to roll back your video drivers to a previous version, however, since upgrading to Windows 11 this isn't an option for me, so I'm constantly hitting my windows key throughout the day in order to get the second monitor to update.

(note, everything is actually happening on that monitor, it's just the screen is not refreshing).

Cheers
D

Answer 3

This started occurring yesterday on my first work from home day since updating to windows 11 on my home PC. I found an eyeball searing temporary fix, by turning on HDR for each display. I did notice the monitor that was refreshing was averaging 48hz while the display that was retaining the image (and would refresh maybe once every five minutes if I didn't force it) was 144hz continuously but I didn't check what the rate was when it was working, I was too busy catching up with my work delayed by my trouble-shooting and fighting off the searing migraine from terrible HDR implementation.

Answer 4

I had exactly the same issue after upgrade to Windows 11, using a GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER.
I could solve it as follows.

• Start NVIDIA Control Panel
• Go to displays > configure multiple displays (or something similar as my language is set to german ;-)
• Make the display that isn't refreshing properly to your primary display (no need to change the numbering of the displays)

Additionally make sure that in Windows 11 the same display is marked as primary display

• Go to Windows 11 > display settings multiple displays
• Mark the same display as primary as in the NVIDIA Control Panel

After that I am able to work with multiple displays local and remote as on Windows 10.

I didn't try the effect of the other settings in Windows 11 display settings: Remember windows position and minimize windows. But I'm pretty sure that they will also have an impact on how multiple screens work on Windows 11 local and Windows 10 remote.

Answer 5

Remote Desktop Multi-Monitor Issues

If you’re trying to use Remote Desktop with more than one monitor and it keeps instantly disconnecting, you may be able to fix it by making the following tweaks to group policy (on the machine you’re trying to remote into) 
 
Go to: 

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Remote Session Environment 

Change the following: 

Use hardware graphics adapters for all Remote Desktop Services sessions – Disabled 

Limit number of monitors – Enabled – (Set to one more monitor than you intend to use) 

Use WDDM graphics display driver for Remote Desktop Connections - Disabled