Windows 10: dwm.exe stopped working

Before i explain the issue i have to say this first. My laptop's primary display is dead, i'm using HDMI to a monitor and i can only see stuff on it once the gpu driver is loadedSo no BIOS, safe mode.So, i had this random issue where the laptop didn't give any video output. What i did before it happened is that i put the laptop to sleep mode for 2-3hours. I tried force stop and booting but that for some reason didn't work. I unplugged the power cable and tried and laptop started to give video output. Here's what reliability monitor says

:)

 

disabling dwm access denied

I don't know if it is even possible to disable DWM and still have Windows working normally but I found a list of solutions that can solve problems related to DWM:

How to fix Desktop Window Manager notification issues in Windows 10

 

Desktop Windows Manager(DWM) consuming more ram usage

Hey, i have tried all the troubleshooting steps suggested by you to toubleshoot DWM ram usage issue, but still the problem persist and I just close the DWM in task manager, but this is not permant solution I found, because I need to perform same task for every start. Is there any permant solution to this problem apart from the above ?

 

Redegit there is dwm many why

Hello, Gianakl28377

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

DWM stands for Desktop Window Manager, a service that is responsible for rendering visual effects on the desktop, such as transparency, glass window frames, 3-D animations, and more1. DWM uses the registry to store and access various settings and policies related to its functionality.

The reason why you see so many DWM in registry is because each time a new session is created, DWM adds a new subkey and value under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\DWM registry key. This can happen when you log on, switch users, connect to a remote desktop, or run an application that creates a new session. The number of DWM in registry can also increase if some sessions are not properly terminated or cleaned up by the system.

You can use the following steps to check the number of active sessions on your system and compare it with the number of DWM in registry:

• Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager.
  
• Click on the Users tab to see the list of users who are currently logged on or connected to your system.
  
• Click on the Details tab to see the list of processes that are running on your system.
  
• Sort the processes by the PID column to group them by their session identifiers (PID).
  
• Count the number of unique session identifiers that you see in the Details tab. This is the number of active sessions on your system.
  

If the number of active sessions matches the number of DWM in registry, then there is nothing to worry about. However, if the number of DWM in registry is much higher than the number of active sessions, then it might indicate that some sessions are not properly terminated or cleaned up by the system. This can cause performance issues or errors with DWM or other applications that use desktop composition.

When your screen turns yellow, it might be because you've activated night mode or other software's blue light filter. These modes adjust the screen's color temperature to make it warmer, reducing eye strain. However, they can affect the transparency effects of the Desktop Window Manager (DWM) because DWM calculates transparency based on the screen's colors.



When you turn off night mode or the blue light filter, the screen's color temperature returns to normal, but DWM's transparency effects are also turned off. This happens because DWM detects the change in screen colors and recalculates transparency. If you want to maintain DWM's transparency effects, you may need to turn off night mode or the blue light filter.

Additionally, you can ask questions in your most comfortable language; it doesn't have to be in English.

Please let us know if you have any other concerns.

Best regards

Yuhao Li

Microsoft Community Technical Support