Display Issues or Black screen when I establish a remote session to a headless Windows PC?

Problem

It only shows a black screen when you try to establish a remote session to a headless Windows computer. Or, you see other display issues such as app windows showing blank or improperly, the Windows Start menu displaying tiny..

Could also apply if your monitor/display is powered off, or laptop lid is closed, thus simulating a headless computer.

This is not a common case and for most of the cases we could connect to a headless Windows computer without issue. However if you see this happens, please try the workarounds below.

Workaround - Virtual Display Driver

Please first make sure you're running Splashtop Streamer v3.3.4.0 or later.

• On the streamer computer, go to this file path:
  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Splashtop\Splashtop Remote\Server\Driver\LciDisplay
• Right-click "install_driver64.bat" (for 64-bit OS) or "install_driver.bat" (for 32-bit OS) and run as Administrator
• Add registry key "VirtualDisplay"=DWORD:1 (1 to turn feature on and 0 to turn off) under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Splashtop Inc.\Splashtop Remote Server for Business\
• Establish a remote session to the computer.
  • After installing the driver, it will create a virtual display when a remote session is established, named SP-DSP00. E.g., if remote system is a headless one, you will have one display; if it is dual-monitor system, there will be three.
  • The newly created display is with 720P resolution.
  • This should resolve the black screen issue when remote system is a headless one.
  • This should resolve the display issues when remote system is a headless one, i.e. blank windows.
  • If you wish to disable this virtual display, besides uninstalling the driver, you can change the value of the registry key  “VirtualDisplay” to turn on/off the driver.
    • 1=on, 0=off.
      (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Splashtop Inc.\Splashtop Remote Server for Business)

Workaround 2 - Mirror Driver

Please first make sure you're running Splashtop Streamer v3.0.8.2 or later.

• Open the streamer UI
• Go to the Advanced tab, scroll down to find the Install Mirror Driver button / Mirror screen capturing option.
• Click the button to install
• Reboot

Note:

There are two limitations when using Mirror driver. Please click into the link for more details.