The Server Manager console automatically starts when logging in locally or via RDP on a Windows Server with an account that belongs to the local Administrators group (to display a list of users with local administrator rights in Windows). The Server Manager console allows you to install specific roles or components of Windows Server, manage certain roles (often used for managing RDS farms), launch RSAT management consoles, and view the status of local or remote servers. However, in most cases, the Server Manager console is not used every time you log in to a Windows Server, and most administrators prefer to hide it since it can be easily launched when needed using a shortcut in the Start menu.
Let's explore how to disable the automatic startup of the Server Manager console in Windows Server 2022/2019/2016/2012R2.
The easiest way to disable the automatic startup of the Server Manager console for the current user is through the "Manage -> Server Manager Properties" menu.
Enable the option "Do not start Server Manager automatically at logon."
There are also several ways to disable Server Manager autostart for all host administrators.
Method 1. Disable the Server Manager scheduler task.
A separate scheduler task is used to automatically launch the Server Manager console upon user logon. Open the taskschd.msc console and navigate to Microsoft\Windows\Server Manager. Disable the ServerManager task.
You can also disable the scheduler task using PowerShell:
Get-ScheduledTask -TaskName ServerManager | Disable-ScheduledTask
Method 2: Disable Server Manager startup using Group Policy
In Windows Group Policy settings, there is a specific option that allows you to disable the automatic startup of Server Manager.
You can enable this option on an individual computer using the local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc). If you need to enable this policy for servers in an Active Directory domain, you'll need to create a Group Policy Object (GPO) using the Group Policy Management Console (gpmc.msc) and assign the policy to the OU containing the servers or the domain root (in this case, it's advisable to include a WMI filter in the policies to apply the setting only to Windows Server hosts).
Navigate to Computer Configuration -> Policies -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Server Manager and enable the "Do not display Server Manager automatically at logon" option.
Method 3: Disable Server Manager via the Registry
The aforementioned policy corresponds to the registry setting "DoNotOpenServerManagerAtLogon" located in the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ServerManager branch. Therefore, to disable the startup of Server Manager, you can simply change the value of this setting from 0 to 1.
You can manually modify the registry value using regedit.exe, or you can use the following command:
REG ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ServerManager" /v DoNotOpenServerManagerAtLogon /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
Or you can change the registry setting using PowerShell:
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ServerManager" -name "DoNotOpenServerManagerAtLogon" -Value 1 -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
After implementing any of the above methods, the Server Manager will stop starting automatically.