Not sure if you’ve experienced this one, but recently I have – so, maybe it will help someone.

I’ve had installed a brand new and fresh Windows Server 2025, updated to the maximum and configured it as I usually do. It’s a workgroup server, hosting some application, and it will be used by a few (local) users. No big deal.

But then – as I created all the required users and tried to log into a couple of them, noticed an issue – after logging in, I was stuck at a blank screen.

And it stays there. For quite some time. Or maybe forever?!

As this is not normal (LOL!), I’ve thought about what may be the issue – is it something I did?

Maybe the issue is AnyDesk through which I accessed the server? What exactly happens (or should happen) at that time?

Turns out this is the moment when you are (on your first login) being presented with the options to send diagnostic data to Microsoft. And it seems that these options are not loading on my machine, for all the new users… and it’s stuck there.

So, what I did was turning this off via (local) Group Policy, and after that any new login of a freshly created local user was working as it should – user being presented with the Desktop and Server Manager console. As nice folks at Microsoft intended.

You can find and enable the policy at the following location (run GPEdit.msc, of course):
Local Computer Policy – Computer Configuration – Administrative Templates – Windows Components – OOBE – Don’t launch privacy settings experience on user logon – set it to Enabled.

Hope it helps!

Cheers!