Although Server Manager is a one stop shop for
administrating, configuring, managing and monitoring
Windows Server 2008, sometimes I personally prefer not
to always have the Server Manager automatically be
displayed in front of me after each logon. Well, the good
thing is yes you can disable this behavior, and this is
done either by enabling the checkbox Do not show
me this console at logon or by setting a
Group Policy.
If you have a workgroup environment, then you can go to
one server at a time and enable the checkbox or apply the policy locally on
the machines.
If you have an Active Directory Domain
Services environment, then you can set it using Group
Policy Management Console.
To disable Server Manager automatic display after logon,
follow these steps :
In Server Manager, under the Server Summary
section, enable the checkbox beside Do
not show me this console at logon as shown
below

To Set it though Group Policy, then
follow these steps :
-
Click on Start
> Run

-
Type GPEDIT> MSC
> hit OK

-
The Local Group Policy
Editor snap-in will open

-
The policy that we
are interested in can be found by expanding the
following:
Computer Configuration\Administrative
Templates\System\Server Manager

-
Right click on the policy :
Do not display Server Manager automatically
at logon , click Properties

-
Select the RadioButton beside
Enable > Click on OK


-
Close the Local Group Policy
Editor snap-in
-
Click on Start
> Run > type gpudpate
> click on OK


-
To check if the policy is
enabled,
logoff and then logon again, and you will
notice that Server Manager will not automatically be
displayed this time after logon
Summary
You might not need Server Manager to automatically be
displayed after each logon, you have two options to
disable this behavior. If you want to do this on a non
domain server or you want to apply it on a single
server, then either enable the checkbox beside Do not
show me this console at logon or use the Local Group Policy
Editor snap-in, if you have
an Active Directory Domain Services environment and want to apply this
on multiple servers, then use Group Policy Management
Console to create/edit/link a Group Policy Object to the
appropriate Organizational Unit(s)
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