Slow Workstation Logon

[pytchley]

I have found that some workstations take minutes after the Ctrl Alt Del logon applying computer settings before the desktop is displayed. I suspected DNS but settings are identical on the workstations. (I am using static addresss). Event logs are clear. If I logon to another user there is no delay. After a reboot the delay occurs.
I wondered if Mcaffee AV was causing problems but removing this had no effect.
I am stumped - so any help would be appreciated.

 

[MoobyCow]

You could try verbose logging.

http://www.winnetmag.com/articles/index.cfm?articleid=38325

Scroll to the bottom of the article for the how to.

The log file, userenv.log, will be written into the %windir%\debug folder. This folder is a hidden folder.

 

[mlichstein]

I suspected DNS but settings are identical on the workstations

What are the DNS settings on the clients?

 

[Stiddy]

We were experiencingthe same problem. We found that after logging on to a few of the machines and opening a command prompt we would run the 'set' command. This should produce a line like:

logonserver=blahblah

Sometimes a workstation was logging into a dc that could be in Germany, Japan, China. Thats funny if the pc in in Viginia. I will try to explain the best I can. I will search for an article later. When the pc was booting up and querying DNS for a DC, dns tells the pc a DNS server from its queue. Kinda like round robin in DNS if you have ever heard of it. Search MS$ for information. So DNS was giving the pc the next available DC in its queue. DNS does not know the closest DC to the workstation. There are a few ways to solve this problem. You can set prefered DC in GPO's based on OU's. Or put it in a login script. Check it out and see if you have the same issue.