After installing the Desktop Experience feature, Windows Server 2012 will automatically boot to the Start screen. Thanks to Igal Tabachnik with his post at the hmemcpy Blog, it is possible to automatically boot to the classic desktop although the Desktop Experience feature is installed. The installation can be done either automatically or manually.
I just spent HOURS trying to figure out why my Server 2012 machine wouldn’t receive Push Notifications from the Windows Notification Service. Turns out it’s because the client-side connection checks this registry key. I still really appreciate this website! And I’m sad that in order to receive notifications I can’t boot to the desktop. However, I thought I would post this comment so that people can decide whether they want to turn off Notifications or if they’re surprised when they don’t get notifications and can’t remember why they turned this off!
Even easier is to install the opensource Classic Shell from http://classicshell.sourceforge.net. That gives you a classic Start Menu on the desktop, and one of the options is to boot to the desktop. Kills 2 birds with one stone.
When you enable boot to desktop with the registry change to 0, it makes only 3 items show up on the charm bar. Changing this back to 1 makes them reappear but makes it boot to metro. Anyone know how to have both?
nice post
Please add Mike Millers response to the guide – maybe as an 8.1 option. Thanx for the nice guide!
Although most of the instructions here still apply to Server 2012 R2, this one does not.
Instead, I used http://www.petri.co.il/bypass-start-screen-windows-8-1-server-2012-r2.htm, which suggests right clicking on the taskbar, and selecting Properties. Under the Navigation tab, there’s a checkbox that says “Go to the desktop instead of Start when I sign in”.
Note that this setting is per-user, although the link there also mentions a registry setting (which I did not try).
Thanks Mike, appreciate the tip!
Bad choice –
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionServer]
“ClientExperienceEnabled”=dword:00000000
Because of this –
Change PC Settings missed
It is better to use the Task Scheduler – C:Windowsexplorer.exe,
Comma in the arguments.
Sorry for bad English
I just spent HOURS trying to figure out why my Server 2012 machine wouldn’t receive Push Notifications from the Windows Notification Service. Turns out it’s because the client-side connection checks this registry key. I still really appreciate this website! And I’m sad that in order to receive notifications I can’t boot to the desktop. However, I thought I would post this comment so that people can decide whether they want to turn off Notifications or if they’re surprised when they don’t get notifications and can’t remember why they turned this off!
Change it back -> 0.
And you get back “Change Pc Settings”
Sorry… change it ->1
This website was… how do you say it? Relevant!
! Finally I have found something which helped me. Appreciate it!
Even easier is to install the opensource Classic Shell from http://classicshell.sourceforge.net. That gives you a classic Start Menu on the desktop, and one of the options is to boot to the desktop. Kills 2 birds with one stone.
When you enable boot to desktop with the registry change to 0, it makes only 3 items show up on the charm bar. Changing this back to 1 makes them reappear but makes it boot to metro. Anyone know how to have both?
Oh wow! Thanks for making the automatic batch file!
I didn’t expect to find my name on it, thanks so very much! 🙂
Thanks for the guide :D. Do you have a guide somewhere on how to ‘use’ Windows Server 2012 ?
Thanks for posting this! And thank you very much for your blog, it is very useful 🙂
Thank you for delivering the information! 🙂 I’m glad you like the blog 😉
Kudos to you and Kudos to OP for representing by naming his source. Such esprit de corps!