Here’s a new one! Microsoft, fresh off announcing the general availability of Windows 10 version 2004, is tackling the various issues that users have started reporting.
For the most part, this latest version of the OS is a solid shot, though understandably, it’s not without its share of troubles. You have things like audio and graphics issues, as well as problems with hardware compatibility on certain machines.
One rather curious issue that has surfaced has got to do with external displays.
This one applies to the Windows 10 Education release, with people on this flavor of the OS that have deployed the May 2020 Update are seeing black screen on an external display when working with Office applications that come with drawing capabilities — like Microsoft Word and Whiteboard.
Microsoft acknowledged this issue, and the company has also provided a workaround until a permanent solution is provided.
“If you have a device running Windows 10 version 2004 with a built-in screen (such as a laptop or tablet) and a connected external display set to Duplicate your primary screen, you might see both monitors flicker and the external monitor go black if you try to draw using an Office app (such as Word). This can also happen with some other apps capable of drawing, such as Whiteboard. If you check in Device Manager, your graphics controller will have a warning icon next to it (a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark in it).”
The easiest way around this is to simply restart the external device, and things should recover properly on their own.
Redmond is expected to release a software update in the future that makes this error disappear, but for the time being, this workaround above is the way to go if you encounter something like this on your external display.
