Windows 10 Logon Times

[Joanne]

Yeah think I'll be upgrading all the machines to SSD before I put Windows 10 onto them.

[Sagima]

Having finally finished our windows 10 build and redone all the group policies our login times in the main ict suite are (averaged over 3 attempts)

 

Boot to logon screen from off: 10 seconds

Logon to being able to type in word (new user): 21 seconds [welcome screen off], 33 seconds [welcome screen on]

Logon to being able to type in word (subsequent logon): 12 seconds

 

 

PC is a 2014 nuc, i3, 8gb ram, 128gb ssd. Win 10 LTSB x64

 

Previously, on the same hardware with win7 and our old group policies, they were 25 seconds, 70 seconds and 13 seconds respectively (no welcome screen on 7)

 

We use redirected folders, we don't use roaming or mandatory profiles

Edited April 8, 2016 by Sagima

[DrCheese]

How to reduce your Windows 10 first logon time by circa 66%

 

 

The AppSense Bigot: Windows 10 part #8 - speeding up the first logon process

 

gah, his method of copying up a profile is completely unsupported by Microsoft. You are still only able to do this by using the copyprofile method in sysprep.

 

I found however when running a default profile it caused a bunch of issues with users not being able to click on the start button.

[Winner]

We are using Windows 10 Education. Microsoft are promising new features exclusive to this edition in Anniversary Update and going forward, (see here). In the blog post it mentions they are going to improve first login times, but for now here is how we are optimising logon time. First, we remove all the default apps (bar the Store) with the following powershell command:

 

Get-AppxPackage –AllUsers | where-object {$_.name –notlike “*Microsoft.WindowsStore*”} | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxProvisionedPackage –online | where-object {$_.packagename –notlike “*Microsoft.WindowsStore*”} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage –online

 

Certain apps cannot be removed (i.e. Edge, Cortana) so you have two options to further improve login times. Option 1 is to use AppLocker in Group Policy to block the modern apps. This works well, but at each logon the "App Readiness" service will still have a go at setting the apps up at each logon, which delays getting to the desktop. (For those already using this method check the event logs under "Applications and Services Logs\Microsoft\Windows\AppReadiness" to see evidence of this happening). Here is my example policy:

 

 

Here are some AppLocker instructions to get you going

 

Option 2 is to disable the "App Readiness" service. When this is disabled Windows wont bother trying to setup any of the modern apps at logon. The Settings app and Cortana will still work, but you sacrifice having Edge. We have decided to go with IE 11 as the default browser for best compatibility with existing systems (online exams, intranet etc.) and also install Google Chrome. We also install Microsoft Calculator Plus as an alternative to the modern app.

 

As an extra tip take a look at the VMware OS Optimisation tool. It's designed for VDI environments (which we also run), but can help you identify services and scheduled tasks that can be disabled on physical PCs in a domain environment to further improve OS performance. Using this I have also disabled the following services with group policy:

 

 

And removed the following scheduled tasks with group policy preferences (please note some of these are filtered to only be removed on our VDI stations):

 

 

OneDrive client also tries to set itself up at every user logon (????) We stop this with a User GPP registry item. Just delete the key HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\OneDriveSetup

 

I've just tested logon times with a newish laptop which has an SSD. I am testing with local profiles at the moment. First logon was 32 seconds. Second logon 12 seconds. Older hardware is obviously slower, so SSD upgrades are your friend

 

I have verbose logging turned on so I can see the profile generation and group policy processes for the first 17 seconds, then a further 15 seconds on "Preparing desktop". I tune the timeout of "Preparing Desktop" with a user group policy preference registry item. If this is the first time a user logs on to Windows 10 I set HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\DelayedDesktopSwitchTimeout (DWORD) to 15 seconds (I would rather users stare at this than a black screen until the desktop appears). If a profile already exists on the PC I use GPP item targeting to change this value to 4 seconds.

Edited April 15, 2016 by Winner
Added more optimisation details

[simpsonj]

Anybody used the Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer? Looks interesting, and the blog @Winner posted shows potential, at least Microsoft are looking at the Education market!

[FN-GM]

Something in our user GPO is slowing it down here. I disabled it by mistake and the login speed was great! Not found out what it is yet.

[smithson83]

If you do find it, I'd love to know what it was, login time is a big reason I'm not looking at moving over

[kennysarmy]

Something in our user GPO is slowing it down here. I disabled it by mistake and the login speed was great! Not found out what it is yet.

 

LTSB? or other?

 

Any news on what you found?

[alfatec]

The new anniversary update will speed up first login times significantly.

[Joanne]

The new anniversary update will speed up first login times significantly.

 

That probably won't filter down to LTSB for another while though :-/

[alfatec]

Yea agree. That is the issue. Do you go with 1511 for the summer upgrade or wait??

[FN-GM]

LTSB? or other?

 

Any news on what you found?

 

Its LTSB. I haven't looked into it as yet.

[thimon]

SSD arriving next week to test and compare boot speed to a standard 2.5". Although currently can only get powershell to remove built in apps on currently signed in user, sign in as another user and they're still there! Am using the -alluser command as well more testing required on Monday!

[DrCheese]

That probably won't filter down to LTSB for another while though :-/

 

I'm hoping (Praying!) that they do a 2016 summer LTSB for the anniversary update. I'm guessing that Server 2016 will be based on this and come out around the same time...

[Michael]

What I don't understand is everyone on here who have deployed LTSB were doing so, so you wouldn't have to touch deployments for 10 years.

 

Now you're wanting a 2016 LTSB update...

[Steve21]

What I don't understand is everyone on here who have deployed LTSB were doing so, so you wouldn't have to touch deployments for 10 years.

 

Now you're wanting a 2016 LTSB update...

 

Not that I've actually done either yet, but I guess it's more that service pack level, rather than daily fixes Once a year fix I can cope with! haha

 

Steve

[Michael]

But that's essentially the same situation as with the Education version. Build 10240 will be discontinued (at some point), then you deploy Redstone. I suspect they'll be a time overlap (there has to be).

 

LTSB was designed to be left alone, as it will continue to receive updates for 10 years but no new features.

[Joanne]

Had a real world test of my image last week, logging on a bank of laptops which I've put Windows 10 onto and they worked like a dream. Initial logon is about 30 seconds or so and then after is a lot faster. Excited to be upgrading everything.

[DrCheese]

What I don't understand is everyone on here who have deployed LTSB were doing so, so you wouldn't have to touch deployments for 10 years.

 

Now you're wanting a 2016 LTSB update...

 

eh, I see the LTSB releases as "service packs" - The first LTSB after release will essentially be "SP1" I can handle once a year major upgrades, not whenever Microsoft feel I should be moving my organisation forward.

But that's essentially the same situation as with the Education version.

 

No.. the Education version comes with all the metro junk that's just not required

[Sagima]

I think I was expecting anniversary updates to LTSB each of which would get 10 year of updates. I didn't think they would just make someone nine years from now install the 2015 LTSB - I imagined a 2015LTSB then a 2016LTSB and so forth (maybe alternating years).

 

Well hopefully we'll find out this year if that's that case

[Michael]

I think that was exactly Microsoft's intention. You install Windows 10 LTSB in the likes of Airports, Train Stations, ATMs, Factories - all these applications require very high up times, so yes, you could run the original LTSB 10240 version for 10 years.

 

Microsoft will of course continue to release new LTSB versions (like a Redstone version), and this also would be valid for 10 years. I'm sure Microsoft will still give you the choice between 10240, 10586 and Redstone LTSB builds, as all are valid for 10 years from their RTM date.

 

As for the Metro carp, there are solutions with the likes of AppLocker to disable such applications. I think as I and I'm sure @Arthur said the same, as time goes on the Windows 10 versions will be more distinctive, with Redstone bringing new features but LTSB remaining pretty much 'as is'.

[Arthur]

We'll hopefully we'll find out this year if that's that case

There should be another LTSB this year. After that they will be released every 2-3 years.

 

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/windows/manage/introduction-to-windows-10-servicing

 

It is important to note again that not all feature upgrades will have an LTSB. The initial release of Windows 10, published in July 2015, has an LTSB and Microsoft expects to designate one additional feature upgrade in the next 12 months for long-term support. After that, Microsoft expects to publish feature upgrades with long-term servicing support approximately every two to three years. Microsoft will provide additional information in advance of publishing new feature upgrades so that IT administrators can make informed deployment planning decisions.

 

[Arthur]

No.. the Education version comes with all the metro junk that's just not required

The junk can be removed easily enough, although I agree that we shouldn't have to do it in the first place.

Edited May 23, 2016 by Arthur

[FN-GM]

I think the LTSB's are released every 3 years with a 10 year support cycle on each release.

[Garacesh]

Disabling the logon animation does exactly that - disables the animation, it doesn't speed things up. I actually think it's better if the end user can see something's happening/changing, rather than nothing visible at all.

Solution: Disable the animation. Enable verbose messages. Job done.

(Added bonus: If your login process is hanging somewhere, you get a good idea where to look.)

 

Logons here are about 35-40 seconds using mandatory profiles.