Office applications turns white after inactivity in RDP

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!!

Snowball 0 Reputation points

2023-05-04T12:39:20.53+00:00

Did you find any solution to this problem?
Michel Gijsbert van Houwelingen 45 Reputation points

2023-05-09T12:17:13.11+00:00

Unfortunately not, currently working with Microsoft Support to solve this. But they can't seem to find the cause as well. I'll post the fix when we know it.

If you experience the same issue, please comment. And also if you've found the fix, please let me know as well. Thanks!
Snowball 0 Reputation points

2023-05-12T13:18:07.72+00:00

Thank you for the info. We have this issue since months and have not found any solution. One of the main problem is that we cannot reproduce it regularly. Sometimes it happens exactly like you described it but sometimes no white screen happens.

If you add an image into a word document and then use crop image, it happen all the time but then somehow it stopped to happen this way. However from time to time white screen still appears.

will post any new info I have
Michel Gijsbert van Houwelingen 45 Reputation points

2023-05-12T13:54:26.6966667+00:00
Thank you for the update, so we're not the only one it seems.. I've updated that information to Microsoft as well, perhaps it speeds up the process.

The way we can reproduce it every time again:

Open the RDP

Open one Word file on the left half of the screen

Open another Word file on the right side of the screen

Wait for 15 to 60 seconds

Weird thing is, that some RDP-clients don't have the issue. We have a test-notebook with similar specs, but it doesn't have the issue when we test the exact same thing. While a MacBook has the issue and my own laptop (Windows) also has the issue...
Snowball 0 Reputation points

2023-05-15T09:30:26.13+00:00

Today after newest OS patches I was able to reproduce it again and it looks like this (I have dark mode enabled in the screenshot)

or this:
Stijn 15 Reputation points

2023-05-15T09:31:11.0766667+00:00
Hello Mike, we have have the same problem.

Windows server 2022 standard with Microsoft Office LTSC 2021.

What we've tried so far:

Install latest updates for Windows and Office

Clean Windows server 2022 (no policies)

Force use of TCP (instead of both)

The Microsoft Office 365 installation didn't have this issue.

Same with domain admin users. Seems that they don't have this issue either...
Michel Gijsbert van Houwelingen 45 Reputation points

2023-05-15T09:45:58.02+00:00

An update on the MS case: Microsoft has forwarded the case to the 'Microsoft Office'-team last week. We tried several things but couldn't find the solution so far. Lets hope they will raise priority if they see that more and more people are experiencing these issues.

As answer to Stijn: We also tried updates, clean Windows and TCP only. Interesting that O365 doesn't have the issue. I'm not sure if we already tried domain admin users, but I'll also try that one and keep you guys posted.

Update 11:49: Just tried with a domain admin, we also have the issue as domain admin. We don't have it in the VMware console. Are you also running it as a VM or bare metal?
Snowball 0 Reputation points

2023-05-15T09:49:33.8966667+00:00

We can reproduce it with Dom-Admin too.

We created a new sessionhost only for playing around with this issue. We tried nearly everything related to graphics, memory, 32/64bit office. White-Screens always happens. Sometimes we can reproduce it, sometimes not.
Stijn 15 Reputation points

2023-05-15T10:12:53.16+00:00

Hello Mike, domain admins users seem to have the problem now aswell.

If we connect via the Hyper-V manager there seems to be NO problem (user or admins account).

Via RPD we can reproduce the problem each time at any resolution.

At lower resolution via RDP (1280 x 768) we get the following "blank screen":
Michel Gijsbert van Houwelingen 45 Reputation points

2023-05-15T10:44:48.36+00:00

We also get the white screens nearly every time, otherwise we get the same 'artifacts' as Stijn is getting in his last screenshot.

Seems like it only affects Server 2022 in combination with Office 2021 LTSC, and only with RDP. On console level we don't experience the issue, looks like we have the same situation. I've updated the case with Microsoft linking to this page. If I get an update, I'll let you guys know.
rudie egberink 10 Reputation points

2023-05-15T21:38:04.46+00:00

stijn and i are working together on this problem.
a while ago i found the same issues on the link below. untill now there is no fix.
stijn and i are working together on this problem. a while ago i found the same issues on the link below. untill now there is no fix.

https://borncity.com/win/2022/12/22/windows-server-2022-microsoft-office-display-issues-on-rds/

Also the same problem was with office365 when going to idle state, but there they solved the issue and the problem went away after an update. maybe this would help them search in the right direction to quickly solve this problem

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/898355/word-365-page-goes-blank-when-idle

Currently we have multiple customers with this same issue on multiple environments.
Michel Gijsbert van Houwelingen 45 Reputation points

2023-05-16T07:01:00.85+00:00

Hi Rudie, thank you for the additional information! I have a call scheduled with Microsoft today and will definitely mention these articles. Lets hope they can connect the dots and solve this issue asap. Of course I'll keep you posted.
rudie egberink 10 Reputation points

2023-05-16T07:06:22.74+00:00

Many thanks, If it helps for Microsoft we have also the systems in place to show this problem, we can reproduce this problem 99% of the times.
Michel Gijsbert van Houwelingen 45 Reputation points

2023-05-16T12:08:15.3766667+00:00

Unfortunately Microsoft didn't call me, over an hour later got an email telling me to reinstall again... Seems like they don't see the importance of this issue yet. Is anyone else here also working on a case with Microsoft regarding the same issue?
Snowball 0 Reputation points

2023-05-16T12:30:32.1533333+00:00

That's a bummer... how can we help you to convince your ms contact that this is a real issue. It seems to affect may companies.
Stijn 15 Reputation points

2023-05-17T14:04:16.77+00:00

Hello Mike and Snowball,

I have contacted Microsoft business support and opened a new ticket with them. Lets hope they can fix this issue soon. I will let you know if I hear anything from them.
Michel Gijsbert van Houwelingen 45 Reputation points

2023-05-22T08:28:59.5033333+00:00

Hi Stijn,

Good to hear that another case is opened with Microsoft. Did you make progress with them so far? Unfortunately no progress on our side.
Stijn 15 Reputation points

2023-05-23T07:17:35.38+00:00

Hello Mike,

Unfortunately no response yet from Microsoft. I will contact them again today.

I will let you know if I hear anything from them.
Snowball 0 Reputation points

2023-05-23T12:30:14.9566667+00:00

I'm in process of opening a ticket too... keep you up to date.
Michel Gijsbert van Houwelingen 45 Reputation points

2023-05-31T12:19:32.3833333+00:00

Still no useful updates from Microsoft on our side. How are your tickets doing? Seems like Microsoft isn't getting the priority of this issue.
Snowball 0 Reputation points

2023-05-31T12:36:50.3733333+00:00

Last Friday they send us a first email telling us to to change "Conditional Access Policies" in the "Azure Admin Center".... but we never wrote anything about Azure (and no, we do not have Azure in this particular case...)
Since then, we did not had any feedback
Stijn 15 Reputation points

2023-06-05T09:57:55.7033333+00:00

Hello,

Unfortunately still no usefull response from Microsoft.

Has anyone else received a usefull response?
Michel Gijsbert van Houwelingen 45 Reputation points

2023-06-05T13:47:08.5933333+00:00

Hi Stijn,

Unfortunately no updates from our side as well. I try to keep in touch with Microsoft daily, but nothing useful has returned. Just replied to their email mentioning this thread again, asking for escalation of the case. If I get an update, I'll let you guys know.
Snowball 0 Reputation points

2023-06-07T08:02:35.8166667+00:00

Got the wrong support. He tried to help but could not. Will reopen a new case a the correct support location.
Michel Gijsbert van Houwelingen 45 Reputation points

2023-06-13T08:35:53.1733333+00:00

Luckily my Microsoft-support-friend is back from holiday and took back the case. He called me this morning and is looking into it, also looking for a way to escalate. He tried to find your cases to link them all together, but he couldn't find them. Can you guys share your case numbers in a private chat?

I'm not sure if this platform allows chat messages, but you can find me on LinkedIn if you want to share your case number. I hope we can solve the issue quicker that way. Thanks!
Josh Weigner 1 Reputation point

2023-06-15T03:05:15.92+00:00

I'm experiencing a very similar issue with Office 365 apps published as RemoteApps on Azure Virtual Desktop. Hosts are Windows 10 22H2. The RemoteApps will turn white and appear frozen but they are actually just out of focus. Usually clicking around for long enough will bring the window back into focus. Started about 2 months ago.
Michel Gijsbert van Houwelingen 45 Reputation points

2023-06-22T11:45:25.8333333+00:00

Hi guys, did you make any progress with MS Support? We are still investigating. If any of you have a casenumber with Microsoft, I can share it in our case and probably give more attention to this issue. Lets hope we get to the bottom of this soon.
Stijn 15 Reputation points

2023-06-29T06:29:01.7166667+00:00

Hello Mike,

Unfortunately, no luck with Microsoft Support directly. We've now created a ticket with a software licensing partner of ours. They might have some better contacts at Microsoft.

If I get an update, I'll let you guys know.
Teo 0 Reputation points

2023-06-29T18:35:55.2466667+00:00

Same problem here. RDS 2022 and Office LTSC 2021. Tried all listed solutions. Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Michel Gijsbert van Houwelingen 45 Reputation points

2023-07-03T09:21:38.5066667+00:00

Hi Teo, seems to be a bug in the software. Doesn't happen in all situations, but almost all. Please let me know if you find anything or if you've created a case with Microsoft. They are asking for more casenr's to escalate the ticket. Thanks!
marcusm 5 Reputation points

2023-08-03T10:48:22.8366667+00:00

Same Problem here. Anything new from Microsoft?
marcusm 5 Reputation points

2023-08-04T07:50:27.36+00:00

Elsewhere I read that it could be related to touch screens. In fact, we almost exclusively use touchscreen notebooks at this customer. We will now check if we can disable the touch screen functionality and how it behaves.

Can anybody confirm this?

or has the problem and uses touchscreen devices?
Michel Gijsbert van Houwelingen 45 Reputation points

2023-08-07T08:56:42.0666667+00:00

First things first; Still no (useful) update from Microsoft.

To answer Marcusm; We have tested it with both touchscreen devices and without, but in our situation it doesn't seem to change the situation. Laptops that we have been testing a lot with, one laptop (HP EliteBook) has the issue, while another (HP Zbook) doesn't have the issue. That while they both have touchscreen.

At first we thought it was related to a seperate graphics card or something alike, but we haven't been able to confirm that yet because we later tested it on a PC with a seperate graphics card and it has the same issue.

Conclusion; It seems to be linked to the RDP-client device somehow. Some devices have the issue continously while other devices don't have the issue at all. Luckily it is consistent and easily replicated, so easy to test.
marcusm 5 Reputation points

2023-09-19T12:57:35.55+00:00

After days of testing I found a workaround. The problem actually seems to be related to touchscreen devices: As long as a touchscreen device is logged into the RDS server and has started Office, the error occurs. Without a touchscreen device or without Office started from these devices - no error.

After I deactivated the touch function on the devices themselves as a test (device manager) and it was successfull, I wanted a global solution via the server. With over 70 touchscreen devices, this would otherwise have meant a lot of effort, including with group policies and scripts.

I then checked which processes might also be started on the server after a touchscreen device had logged on and found tiptap.exe.

This caused this error in my system environment. After the processes were terminated, the error no longer occurred. However, it is not enough to just rename tiptap.exe to, for example, tiptap.exe_old, the entire directory must be renamed.

In my case the directory can be found under

C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ink

"ink" must now be renamed to, for example, ink_old.

If necessary, the tiptap processes must also be ended in order to rename.

I would be happy to hear from you if it also works for one of you.
Michel Gijsbert van Houwelingen 45 Reputation points

2023-09-22T12:22:38.21+00:00

Thank you very much for the suggestion and diagnosing. However, for us it didn't solve the issue unfortunately. I closed the processes, renamed the folder and rebooted the server, but the issue still occured afterwards.

I also disabled the touchscreen locally from the device manager, but that also didn't change the situation. I'm afraid we have another issue/cause.
marcusm 5 Reputation points

2023-09-28T06:01:55.59+00:00

This is really strange. We set up a complete test system, essentially a new installation of a Server 2022 Standard, then set up the domain services and RDS and installed office 2021 Standard LTSC. The error only occurred if a touchscreen notebook was logged in AND had office started, but then also on devices without a touchscreen. After the touchscreen notebook closed office again, office had to be restarted in the session without touchscreen function so that the error no longer occurred.

We have now carried out the “workaround” in our live environment and the error has completely disappeared. In fact, it was now noticed that the snipping tool no longer works if the directory "ink" was renamed. We have to live with that for now.
Snowball 0 Reputation points

2023-10-06T06:02:37.7166667+00:00

@marcusm Thank your for your information.
I will try your solution today. Let you all know if it works for us
Snowball 0 Reputation points

2023-10-06T14:03:33.81+00:00

After one day, no more white screens.
Will give you a long time feedback in the next weeks.
Michel Gijsbert van Houwelingen 45 Reputation points

2023-10-06T14:07:20.34+00:00

@Snowball , What steps did you perform to fix the issue? Rename the 'ink' folder, or something else? We tried it as @marcusm described, but that didn't fix it for us at that moment.
rudie egberink 10 Reputation points

2023-10-06T14:12:27.1466667+00:00

We tried the same, rename the ink folder and the problem is solved. We also found another mayor issue with the ink folder and related regkeys etc.

We first tried the options in de post below. which did solve the problems for that but not the office issue like here. after also renaming the ink folder it solved the problem.

We have tested it and could not reproduce the problem anymore in our test environment.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/752491/server-2022-and-teams-bloats-hkey-local-machinesys
Snowball 0 Reputation points

2023-10-10T07:42:17.8866667+00:00

just renamed ink folder to "_ink" and rebooted the session host.

We also have TAP Service "deactivated" because of registry bloating. We did this long time ago. It has nothing to do with the white-screen. Just with a registry bloat. But "ink" folder and tap service seems to be related.
Michel Gijsbert van Houwelingen 45 Reputation points

2023-10-11T09:06:08.3066667+00:00

Just tried it again, renaming the folder to "_ink", rebooting the session host (1 of 6) and ran Word. But it seems like it still is happening. Am I missing something or do we indeed have another issue?

Or is the TAP service somehow connected to the issue? How did you disable that? Then I'll try to do the same and hope that helps. Thanks!
marcusm 5 Reputation points

2023-10-11T09:47:11.0866667+00:00

We also have TAP Service "deactivated" because of registry bloating. We did this long time ago. It has nothing to do with the white-screen. Just with a registry bloat.

Just like in our case

Just tried it again, renaming the folder to "_ink", rebooting the session host (1 of 6) and ran Word.

Restart is not necessary. I could imagine that there are problems across sessions. I would try to rename the ink folder on all session hosts and then wait until every user has logged out or logged in again (and so restarted Office).

it would be even better during the next maintenance, so you can make sure that Office was closed on all session hosts.

Please keep in mind that after renaming the ink folder, the snipping tool will no longer work.
Snowball 0 Reputation points

2023-10-20T09:24:02.8166667+00:00

-> Please keep in mind that after renaming the ink folder, the snipping tool will no longer work.

haha already got first complains about snipping tool even we provide Greenshot as screen shot tool...
added empty ink folder, put following files into it :

-> seen https://www.tenforums.com/software-apps/143427-im-trying-save-snipping-tool-what-dlls-dependencies-does-use.html as reference

Currently I don't see White-Screens... however this needs time to test.
THOMAS PROEHL 0 Reputation points

2023-11-14T08:36:38.55+00:00

There are any Updates of this, especially from MS? We are facing exact the same problems after a few month on Srv 2022 with Office 2021 (ltsc).

Tried to reproduce the behavior with "success" - as soon as a touch enabled device is connected and opend office all content of office/ word will be temporal-vanished.

@Snowball what doe´s your long time test state? Any other sideeffects renaming the ink folder?
Snowball 0 Reputation points

2023-12-22T10:55:08.98+00:00

@THOMAS PROEHL All good. You can go for it. It will solve the problem.
Richard Auld 0 Reputation points

2024-01-05T16:52:22.6466667+00:00

Has anyone tried downgrading the office version from 2021 to 2019, but keeping the server version on 2022 to see if the issue continues?

I was considering doing the office downgrade, but wanted to see if anyone has tried that yet.
rudie egberink 10 Reputation points

2024-01-08T09:51:14.01+00:00

Hi Richard.
We did a test with a fresh install office 2019 on a Server 2022 and we did not see this issue. it is a combination of office 2021 with Server 2022.

Accepted answer

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
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3 people found this answer helpful.
Michel Gijsbert van Houwelingen 45 Reputation points

2024-02-23T07:46:27.3133333+00:00

Thanks for the summary! This indeed fixes the issue, however I still think Microsoft has some work left to fix the 'broken' DLL-file and/or draw-function in Office.

Stefan 0 Reputation points

2024-02-23T10:03:30.6366667+00:00

Disabling the Draw Ribbon worked for us. Thx.
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6 additional answers

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
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Robert Gijsen 151 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?
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Sjoerd van den Nieuwenhof 20 Reputation points

2024-10-01T13:22:42.3466667+00:00

Hi Robert,

Nope not tried going to 2024 LTSC, but I opened a case at MS.
As it's hard to reproduce the issue, I think we need to close it. They asked me to disable autosave:

Can we test if the issue persists after disabling Autosave of the draft.

in outlook navigate to File> Options > Mail > scroll to Save messages then uncheck Automatically save items that have not been sent after this many minutes.

click OK restart Outlook

I asked my customer, but have to wait until I get a response.
You could test this as well and keep me updated.

Regards, Sjoerd

Robert Gijsen 151 Reputation points

2024-10-01T14:17:57.37+00:00

I simply can't imagine autosaving would create that issue, but who knows. So far we've seen it 95% from Outlook. I just had the issue myself, but only when I placed my signature (I don't have my signature there automatically). After restarting Outlook it worked again. So I'll see if just waiting triggers it again. I'm also not sure wheter the RDP client makes any difference. I use the regular mstsc (ie. RDP10) but also msrdc, to test some nifty things against our RDS environments. I'm usually connected using msrdc, and I think I've not seen the issue with that, but I still have to confirm that.

Does renaming that DLL really work? I've not procmonned yet, but is that DLL loaded when the issue occurs?

Sjoerd van den Nieuwenhof 20 Reputation points

2024-10-01T15:12:30.5166667+00:00

Oke, the part with the signature is good to verify with my customer. Regarding the client, we tested with RDP and Citrix client, as we have this on a Citrix environment, and both have the issue. Renaming the DLL didn't work for us.
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