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Screen blanking does not work on my Windows 10 host. What can I do?

Some Windows operating systems do not support our solution of screen blanking.

Symptom

On host computers running Windows 10 version 2004 and above, when attempting to blank the screen, you are shown the "Changes introduced by Microsoft are preventing screen blanking on hosts running Windows 10, Version 2004 and above." message.

Cause

Windows Display Driver Models (WDDM) 2.7 and 2.8 used by Windows 10 2004 do not support our approach to screen blanking. Microsoft intentionally blocked the solution we have applied for Windows 10 1607 – 1903 versions with the launch of the Windows 10 2004 version.

Our legacy DPMS drivers used for screen blanking work safely on host computers running Windows 10 version 1607 or lower (WDDM 2.1). Most of the time only integrated Intel display adapters run a lower WDDM version than this.

Screen blanking on Windows 10 v2004 and later operating systems is supported from the 4.1.0.14344 build of the host software.

Article last updated: 27 September, 2022