When you log into a Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003 system for the first time, the Configure Your Server or Manage Your Server screens, respectively, are displayed. These screens are intended to make managing a server easier by providing links to install services and obtain help information. These screens are displayed for every user that logs on until the user checks the box on the screen to stop the screen from running at logon.

A setting in the registry controls whether this screen is displayed by default. When a user logs on for the first time, the subkeys and values in the HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT key are copied to HKEY_USERS\, which is the same as HKEY_CURRENT_USER for the currently logged on user. Under the .DEFAULT key, the Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\srvWiz value dictates if the Configure/Manage Your Server screen displays at logon. A value of 0 disables the screen from displaying and 1 enables it. If you set it to 0 before any user logs on to the system, that screen will never display.

Using a graphical user interface

The following directions disable the screen for the currently logged on user only. See the command-line solution for how to disable it for all users by default.

For Windows Server 2003:

1. From the Start menu, select All Programs Administrative Tools Manage Your Server.
2. At the bottom lefthand corner of the screen, check the box beside Don’t display this page at logon.

For Windows 2000:

1. From the Start menu, select Programs Administrative Tools Configure Your Server.
2. At the bottom of the screen, uncheck the box beside Show this screen at startup.

Using a command-line interface

Run the following command against a Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 machine to prevent the Manage/Configure Your Server screen from displaying for all users:

> reg add "\\\HKU\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\
 Setup\Welcome" /v srvwiz /t REG_DWORD /d 0

If a user logged in before you set the previous registry value, then you’ll need to run this command to disable it for the logged-in user (note: this command must be run locally):

> reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Setup\Welcome\srvWiz"
 /ve /t REG_DWORD /d 0

Using VBScript

' This code disables the
  Manage/Configure Your Server screen for all users
 ' (this only applies to users that have not logged in yet)
 ' ------ SCRIPT CONFIGURATION ------
 intEnable = 0                 ' 0 = disable screen; 1 = enable screen
 strComputer = ""  ' name of target server
 ' ------ END CONFIGURATION ---------
 const HKU   = &H80000003
 strKeyPath  = ".DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\" & _
               "Setup\Welcome"
 strValue = "srvwiz"
 set objReg = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & _
                        "\root\default:StdRegProv")
 intRC = objReg.SetDwordValue(HKU, strKeyPath, strValue, intEnable)
 if intRC <> 0 then
    WScript.Echo "Error setting registry value: " & intRC
 else
    WScript.Echo "Successfully disabled screen"
 end if

' This code disables the Manage/Configure Your Server screen for
 ' the currently logged on user.
 ' ------ SCRIPT CONFIGURATION ------
 intEnable = 0   ' 0 = disable screen; 1 = enable screen
 strComputer = "."
 ' ------ END CONFIGURATION ---------
 const HKCU   = &H80000001
 strKeyPath   = "Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\" & _
               "Setup\Welcome\srvWiz"
 set objReg = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & _
                        "\root\default:StdRegProv")
 intRC = objReg.SetDwordValue(HKCU, strKeyPath, "", intEnable)
 if intRC <> 0 then
    WScript.Echo "Error setting registry value: " & intRC
 else
    WScript.Echo "Successfully disabled screen"
 end if

Tags: disable

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 at 1:42 pm and is filed under System configuration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.