https://imgur.com/gallery/6CCaFYJ
//the app itself is just the blank xna template offered by microsoft
the image should be self explanatory but it appears to be some kind of display driver issue.
I installed just about every redistributable XP can possibly support and tried different settings on the VM.
eventually I exported the app to my native OS out of frustration (the VM is supposed to make everything super safe) and to my surprise it worked on windows 10! it didn't work on windows 10 at first until I installed the XNA redistributable. The app does not use any compatibility modes with older versions on windows