Cursor disappears over document area in Office apps when using Windows 365 via Windows App (Windows 11 24H2)

Question

We are experiencing a cursor rendering issue when connecting to Windows 365 Cloud PCs using the Windows App.

Environment:

• Client Device: 10ZiG 7111q thin client

Client OS: Windows 11 Version 24H2 (OS Build 26100.7840)

Windows App Version: 2.0.964.0

Cloud PC: Windows 365

Microsoft 365 Apps: Monthly Enterprise Channel 2512 (Build 19530.20226, Click-to-Run)

When connected to the Cloud PC:

The mouse cursor disappears over document canvas areas in:

Excel worksheet grid

Word document body

Outlook message body

The cursor remains visible over ribbon, toolbars, and window chrome.

The issue occurs across multiple identical thin clients.

Troubleshooting so far:

Disabled hardware graphics acceleration in Office (including registry enforcement).

Set DPI scaling to 100%.

Disabled mouse shadow and pointer enhancements.

Applied the following registry setting on the client:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client UseHardwareCursor = 0

Rebooted client devices.

Issue persists.

The behavior appears limited to DirectX-rendered document surfaces within the Windows 365 session and does not affect UI chrome, suggesting a potential interaction between Windows App 2.x, Windows 11 24H2, and hardware video decoding.

Are there any known rendering or cursor overlay issues with Windows App 2.x on Windows 11 24H2?

Is there a supported way to disable hardware video decoding in Windows App?

Are there known compatibility issues between Windows 365 sessions and specific GPU/driver stacks on Windows 11 24H2?

Answer 1

Dobhal, Kanishka

If modifying the internal pointer scheme did not force the protocol to render the cursor correctly, this probably means the drop is happening entirely at the local hardware compositor level on the 10ZiG client rather than within the remote encoding stream. Windows 11 24H2 heavily relies on a feature called Multi-Plane Overlay to offload distinct visual layers, like video overlays and custom cursors, directly to the GPU. When local display drivers struggle with multi-monitor handoffs in this state, the dedicated cursor plane is frequently dropped over hardware-accelerated windows on secondary screens.

we need to completely disable Multi-Plane Overlay on your local thin clients to force the Windows Desktop Window Manager to composite all visual layers natively. You can accomplish this by navigating to the registry path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Dwm on the local client device. You will need to create a new DWORD value named OverlayTestMode and set its value data to 5. After applying this key, a full reboot of the thin client is required to rebuild the local display stack without MPO enabled.

If the cursor still drops after disabling MPO, the next diagnostic step is to temporarily connect using the classic Remote Desktop application, previously known as MSRDC, instead of the new Windows App. Testing the older native client architecture will definitively isolate whether we are dealing with a broader WDDM driver incompatibility on the 10ZiG hardware or a specific rendering regression isolated entirely to the newer Windows App 2.x pipeline.

VP

Answer 2

Dobhal, Kanishka

Thanks for the additional information. So we are dealing with a known compositor layering quirk within the modern Remote Desktop and Windows App architecture. When extending a session across multiple displays, particularly on Windows 11 24H2, the local Desktop Window Manager occasionally struggles to properly render custom cursor states, like the Word I-beam or Excel crosshair. This happens over hardware-accelerated remote canvases on secondary outputs. Because the browser-based client relies on web rendering standards rather than the native Windows desktop compositor, it avoids this specific graphics handoff entirely and works as expected.

Since your local client mitigations, including the DisableHardwareDecode registry keys, have not resolved the issue, you must apply a specific adjustment directly inside the Windows 365 Cloud PC session. The most reliable workaround for this is to change the Mouse Pointer scheme inside the Cloud PC Control Panel to "Windows Black" or an extra-large scheme. This modification forces the Remote Desktop protocol to serialize and transmit the cursor as a distinct bitmap rather than relying on the thin client's GPU to locally composite the transparent overlay.

This is a recognized interaction between the Windows App rendering engine, the Windows display driver model, and how Office applications draw custom cursors on secondary screens. You have already applied the correct registry keys for attempting to disable hardware decoding on the local client, which is the officially supported method. Since that did not stabilize the pointer, adjusting the internal Cloud PC cursor scheme is the immediate next step to bypass the local compositor failure while awaiting potential updates to the Windows App graphics engine.

Hope it helps :)

VP

Answer 3

Hi Dobhal, Kanishka,

The issue you are experiencing stems from a composite rendering failure between the modern Windows App, the Windows 11 24H2 display driver model, and the GPU on your 10ZiG thin clients. Your previous troubleshooting steps safely eliminated basic configuration issues, but the registry change you applied targeted the legacy remote desktop engine. The modern Windows App completely ignores the old Terminal Server Client keys, which is why the cursor issue persisted despite your efforts.

There is a supported administrative workaround to disable hardware video decoding in the Windows App, which directly addresses this specific cursor overlay bug. You will need to open the Registry Editor on the affected thin clients and navigate to the local machine software policies, specifically HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Desktop Client. In this location, create a new DWORD value named DisableHardwareDecode and set its data to 1.

This policy forces the Windows App to process the incoming video stream using the thin client CPU rather than routing it through the local graphics card. Doing this effectively bypasses the hardware driver flaw responsible for dropping the cursor over the Office document canvas. You must perform a full reboot of the thin clients after deploying this registry key to ensure the Windows App ingests the new policy at launch. This should be treated as a temporary mitigation while you wait for the hardware vendor to release updated graphics drivers certified for Windows 11 24H2, at which point you can remove the registry value to re-enable hardware decoding and remove the artificial overhead placed on the local processors.

Hope this answer brought you some useful information. If it did, please hit "accept answer". Should you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.

VP

Answer 4

The context only documents one cursor-related Windows 365 issue and some general Windows App limitations; none match the described symptom of the cursor disappearing over Office document canvases in a Windows 365 session via Windows App on Windows 11 24H2.

From the available information:

• The only documented cursor issue for Windows 365 is an offset between the visible cursor and the actual focus position in a remote desktop session, caused by high DPI scaling on both the server and the Cloud PC browser. The supported mitigation is to turn off high DPI mode. This issue affects cursor position, not cursor visibility, and therefore does not align with the disappearing-cursor behavior described.
• Known issues and limitations for Windows App (including Android/Chrome OS and web browser scenarios) do not list any cursor rendering or overlay problems, nor any options to control or disable hardware video decoding.
• The Windows 11 24H2 resolved-issues documentation mentions connection and authentication failures for Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 when using Windows App after a specific security update, but does not mention cursor, rendering, or GPU/driver-related problems.
• AI-enabled Cloud PC known issues cover AI feature readiness, search behavior, and cursor lag when using the "Click to Do" feature, but not cursor disappearance over document surfaces.

Based on this context, there is no documented:

• Known rendering or cursor overlay issue with Windows App 2.x on Windows 11 24H2 matching this scenario.
• Supported method to disable hardware video decoding in Windows App.
• Specific compatibility issue between Windows 365 sessions and particular GPU/driver stacks on Windows 11 24H2.

The only cursor-related mitigation explicitly documented for Windows 365 remains disabling high DPI mode to address cursor offset, not disappearance.

---

References:

• Known issues: Windows 365 Business
• Known issues and limitations of Windows App
• Resolved issues in Windows 11, version 24H2
• Troubleshoot issues with the Windows 365 app
• AI-enabled Cloud PC known issues