Do not enable Automatic login (Autologon) when using Windows Server OS with Remote Desktop Connections

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• When users log in to a Windows Server OS remote desktop session, the VMware Tools user service process stops after startup.
• When the Windows Server OS has Autologon enabled, there exists a race condition between the Autologon at the console and the remote desktop logon which can result in the VMware Tools user service being present. 

Cause

This restriction on the VMware Tools user service with remote desktop connections is to prevent multiple concurrent instances of the VMware Tools user service running which otherwise can lead to crashes and issues.

In Windows, as part of the user logon process, the Windows registry key  'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\VMware User Process' is processed and the VMware Tools user service is started.
When the user logs on at the local console explicitly or by Autologon, the VMware Tools user process continues.
When the user logs on at the remote desktop connection console, the VMware Tools user process will stop as expected.

If Windows Server OS is set to Automatic login for an account and is used with Remote Desktop connection, it will depend on whether the session is local or remote when the Windows registry Run key is processed and launches the VMware Tools user process, you may or may not see the process present.

Note: For VMware Tools versions 11.0.x or newer, this restricted behavior of the user service is limited to Windows Server versions only.

Resolution

No resolution is available at this time, see the workaround section.

Workaround:
If the VMware Tools user process is not present on the system, it can be started manually using the Windows Run Command box or from a command prompt.

To launch the VMware Tools process using the Windows run command box:

1. Open the Windows Run dialog by pressing the Windows + R keys at the same time.
2. Run this command to start the VMware Tools process: "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\vmtoolsd.exe" -n vmusr