AD 2012 R2 - Disable Server Manager on Startup via Group Policy

Is anyone else annoyed with the Server Manager Dashboard opening up every time you log into a server? Me too.You can turn it off on each server manually by going to Manage > Server Manager Properties and Checking Do not start Server Manager automatically at logon:

But that only sets it for your user account and you would have to do it for each server one at a time. Fortunately there is a Group Policy setting for that. Lets go ahead and open Group Policy Management, go to Domains > Your Domain > Right Click on Group Policy Objects and select New. Lets call this one Disable Server Manager on Startup.

Right Click on the newly created GPO and select Edit. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > System > Server Manager. Set Do not display Server Manager automatically at logon to Enabled and close the GPO. If you check the settings you should have:

Link the GPO to your servers OU and that's it! Next time you log into your server you won't have to close out of Server Manager.

More to come!

If you like this blog, give it a g+1