Opening and closing your laptop could be enough to crash Windows 10
Take note, owners of Windows 10 laptops
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Microsoftis working to remedy a strange issue that causes Desktop Windows Manager (DWM) to fail when a user repeatedly opens and closes their laptop.
The problem reportedly affects laptops running any version ofWindows 10and configured to operate at4Kresolution, whether via an external monitor or the device display itself.
According to a recentMicrosoft Support entry, the DWM crash is caused by a bug in the Microsoft DirectX Video Memory Management component and has nothing to do with a hardware issue.
Windows 10 crash
First introduced with Windows Vista, Desktop Windows Manager dictates how any given application displays pixels on the screen.
“When desktop composition is enabled, individual windows no longer draw directly to the screen or primary display device as they did in previous versions of Windows,” explains documentation on the Microsoft website.
“Instead, their drawing is redirected to off-screen surfaces in video memory, which are then rendered into a desktop image and presented on the display.”
Simply put, theWindows 10feature is responsible for enabling visual effects tied to desktop activities and supporting high resolution display, including 4K.
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According to members of various online forums, DWM crashes can have a range of different effects, ranging from the minor to the debilitating.
Some users found their desktop icons had been rearranged and resized, others were unable to activate Windows Aero themes (which support 3D window switching, taskbar previews and transparency), while the unluckiest were served a black screen, fixable only with a restart.
As demonstrated by two scenarios set out by Microsoft, the problem is only triggered if a number of specific criteria are met.
Scenario 1:
Scenario 2:
The company is currently working to deliver a patch for the DirectX issue, but has not specified when that might arrive.
Joel Khalili is the News and Features Editor at TechRadar Pro, covering cybersecurity, data privacy, cloud, AI, blockchain, internet infrastructure, 5G, data storage and computing. He’s responsible for curating our news content, as well as commissioning and producing features on the technologies that are transforming the way the world does business.
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