Just providing an update on the Start menu delay on Server 2025 issue that I mentioned a few months back. Got a solution from MS, and it will affect all of us. This issue: After installing the Citrix VDA software on Server 2025 VM, there will be a noticeable 2-4 second delay from the time you click on the Start menu to the time it is displayed. This is because Microsoft changed the behavior of StartMenuExperienceHost.exe to not automatically start at logon. They did this to speed up the logon process, and the change was originally targeting Windows 365 and Cloud PC. No idea why it's hitting Server 2025, but it is what it is. This is because their code looks for a multi-session terminal server and activates the new behavior. I believe it's activated once you install the RDS role, which is the first thing that the VDA installer does. The solution: Microsoft provided me with a registry fix that reverses this behavior back to the standard behavior where the process runs at user logon.

Path: HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\StartMenu
Value: PrelaunchOverride
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 1

I'm baking this into our OS layer, but this should also work deployed via Computer GPP, as it is effectively immediately.

Eh? Start Menu doesn't run automatically???

Correct, StartMenuExperienceHost does not run automatically when the OS detects that it's a multi-session terminal server.

That sounds so fucking stupid, that it actually might be true

Holy moley.

Well I guess if you don't do anything at logon you'll get a faster logon process, sure

When he told me it was by design I legit started laughing until I realized he wasn't kidding.

That's like the old "logon scripts don't run at logon any more to speed up logons" they introduced on Server 2012.

I get wanting to speed up the logon process, but causing the user to actually experience a delay is way worse since it's interactive. Wild.

Exactly. You ever seen how fast logons to Windows NT4 are on modern hardware? Sub one-second

I asked him for the name of the developer who created UWP apps but he wouldn't tell me

Satan

Thanks a mill Nick, what a bunch of muppets at MS ...

Muppetsoft has a nice ring to it, actually

@Devin McCubbins ^---

I am here for following…

Still waiting on a final update from MS with the new public info, but I know from my thread on Reddit that this is now resolved for everyone else

Confirmed resolved from someone I spoke to as well

i need to test this on Win11 multisession!