Musescore opens to a blank screen

David - Thanks for the feedback. This issue has been a head-scratcher. Let me describe my setup. I run on a Windows 11 Home laptop, with a cheap external monitor connected with an HDMI adapter to its regular monitor input. The desktop is extended to the left of the laptop so I can drag stuff there for reference, and work on the laptop's internal screen. Normally, I open a pdf of a manuscript and drag it to the left, then open Musescore on the laptop screen and work directly in front of me.

Here is the new chapter: Until 5 mins ago, it was behaving as I described. Open the app; blank window appears; minimize, maximize; normal operation resumes.

As it happened, I had a score open in front of me and decided I needed to compare it with another score I had transcribed a while ago. I opened that score, usual min/max rigamarole, then I dragged it to the external monitor and maximized it. I did not notice that the upper right Window controls had disappeared, but I've seen that behavior before; that seems to be what led to the weird min/max thing.

I worked for a while on the laptop screen, and used the upper right Close control to close the score. That left the older score maximized on the external monitor with no controls, and the drag bar not responding. I closed the app using the X control on the tray icon, but when I opened it again, the app remembered that it had last been on the external monitor. Didn't matter if I opened the score I was just working on or anything else, it opened on the external, without window controls.

Thrashing about to get something to work, I first turned the external monitor off, which pushed the Window to my laptop. But when I switched it back on, the Window snapped right back. Clearly, the laptop knew the monitor was still there, via the plug. I pulled the HDMI plug, which shot the Window back to the laptop where it now showed the size controls, but they didn't respond. Rrrrrrr. But the drag control did work, and the app sprang into the middle of the small desktop. I was able to close it with the Close control.

Not trusting it any further than I could throw it, I opened the app using the tray icon, and the app appeared on the Scores page as it always used to. I plugged the monitor back in. The image on the laptop jumped, as it does when it recognizes a new device. Ever since (it's been a lot more than 5 min now), the app opens normally, without the blank window, both from the tray icon and by dbl-clicking score filenames.

If you're still getting the min/max behavior, perhaps it has something to do with your monitor/desktop configuration as it seems to be for mine. I just need to be very watchful when I have two or more copies of Musescore open.

• R