Win 8.1 Skipping "Application Setup on New Login"

[Katowned]

Hey All,

 

I'm looking into seeing if we can get Win 8.1 to site wide at some point in the near future however in our enterprise users are changing computers very often this means that every time a user logs in with their domain user/pass it'll go through the process of setting up the apps on each machine they login with, is there anyway of getting rid of the "setting up apps" 15 minute process that occurs? (We have a site of about 1000+ so you can see why this would be an issue)

 

Perhaps some usage of Folder Redirection might be useful, I'm also more than welcome to hear of techniques that may require a little bit of jury rigging it to get it to work

 

Thanks

[fairm010]

In all honesty if you haven't deployed 8.1 yet I'd hold on for Windows 10. Looks to be a lot more friendly and co-operative!

[beany1]

Do you use the apps? If not, I just remove them from the reference image with a bit of Powershell - then there isn't any to setup.

[beany1]

Or if your actually meaning the first login welcome video where it says something like "hold on, we're setting up your apps" etc. That can be turned off in group policy.

Computer Config > Policies > Admin Templ > System/Logon> Show first sign-in animation

[dhicks]

Or if your actually meaning the first login welcome video where it says something like "hold on, we're setting up your apps" etc. That can be turned off in group policy.

Computer Config > Policies > Admin Templ > System/Logon> Show first sign-in animation

 

Hang on - does it just turn off the animation or does it actually stop the app setup process? If it's just the former, with the apps still being set up, it would explain our users' long login times the first time they use a machine.

[beany1]

That just turns off the animation - if you have removed the apps it still shows the sign-in animation its just a lot quicker than standard.

[NeustroEduIT_Christine]

Unfortunately it look's like its a feature of Windows 8.1, so I don't think you can get rid of the process. As mentioned above, you could turn off the animation, it would just mean the user has a blank screen (for the same period of time). Completely agree with @fairm010 about waiting - hopefully Microsoft will announce a Windows 10 release date in April.

[JasonNVSD]

Completely agree with @fairm010 about waiting

I would tend to agree but a lot of new hardware doesn't support Windows 7 (e.g. anything using an eMMC system drive). Additionally, Windows 7 just went from Mainstream Support to Extended Support this January, so only security fixes from here on.

 

Unfortunately it look's like its a feature of Windows 8.1, so I don't think you can get rid of the process. As mentioned above, you could turn off the animation, it would just mean the user has a blank screen (for the same period of time)

You can. The trick is that you can't just uninstall the apps and disable the animation, you actually have to remove the "provision package". Microsoft addresses it in a KB article, but I highly suggest you use this PowerShell script from one of their blogs.