Fix Black Screen During Edge Screen Share: Enable Graphics Acceleration

Screen sharing is one of the handy features today that lets you remotely show the contents of your desktop screen to another person. In that way, it seems like a great medium for presentations, online collaborations, or one of the best suited to “tech support.” But somehow you might run into a snag in Microsoft Edge.

To be specific, some people in Microsoft Edge use the Screen Share feature, but when they share their screen, the other person to whom the screen is shared sees a black screen instead of the expected content. In that way, a lot of people are frustrated with such things. So, this guide will guide you in fixing such a frustrating issue.

What is the Black Screen Issue on Edge

There is no specific solution from Microsoft for the black screen issue in Edge. And they have not indicated any reason. For such a thing, I tried to figure it out and found that black screen issues can happen due to various factors such as outdated graphics drivers, browser settings conflicting, hardware limitations, software conflicts, and many more. 

Because of such possible factors, people in Edge using the Screen Share feature are getting black screen issues during meetings, streaming content, using web applications, or any other scenario. All such things hurt users. But in between, there is one proven solution, which is the Graphics Accelerator, so let’s discuss it in depth.

Importance of graphics acceleration

You can imagine that your computer seems to be in a busy kitchen where the Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the head chef, handling all the main tasks. When it comes to displaying graphics on your screen, like videos or any high-weight object, that can be a lot of work for the CPU to juggle on its own. 

In between, graphics acceleration is bringing hope for all black-screen-impacted users on Edge. Graphics acceleration is a specialized part of your PC that offers a much better experience handling these visual tasks. Because it frees up the CPU to focus on other things, which appears to be a potential solution that we are trying below.

Steps to Enable Graphics Acceleration on the Edge | How to

Usually, in Microsoft Edge, the graphics acceleration setting is disabled. And unless you enable it, you won’t be able to resolve the black screen issue while screen sharing. For this thing, you need to enable it from Edge settings and further try Screen Sharing. I know most of you don’t know where to enable such an option. So here are the instructions to enable it.

1. Launch Microsoft Edge.
2. Click on the Settings menu.
3. Select the System or Advanced options.
4. Find the section related to hardware acceleration or graphics settings.
5. Toggle the switch or checkbox to enable graphics acceleration.
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6. Save the changes and restart Edge to take effect.
7. That’s it; you are done.

Besides that, you can enable the same settings through the Windows control panel if you want. At this moment, it is time to verify whether graphics acceleration was successfully activated or not. You can check this by running various graphics-intensive tasks, one of which is screen sharing. I am sure that after this, the black screen issue will now be fixed.

Additional things to know 

More likely, the black screen issue will be fixed by the above-given option. But since there is no official solution, and so on, some users might not be satisfied. For such users, we recommend updating their graphics driver to the latest version. Alongside, ensure to check whether any extension conflicts with such a black screen issue. Accordingly, deal with the causes and get things aligned. 

Final Thoughts

To conclude, graphics acceleration plays a significant role in displaying graphics-intensive content smoothly. Enabling it in Edge can often resolve the black screen issue you might encounter during screen sharing. This guide walks you through enabling graphics acceleration using both the Settings and Command Prompt methods. Alongside, users can try additional troubleshooting or also wait for an official solution. 

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