Windows 2008 R2 – No logon dialog after CTRL-ALT-DELETE

Had this issue tonight where a Windows 2008 R2 server could not logon after being removed from the domain. Not sure if this was due to a recent update as we have had lots of issues with that in the last week. I thought it would be good to share the fix I found to help others.

relevant info:

  • Booting into safe mode would not let you logon, the only option that worked was safe mode with command prompt.
  • I had tried running SFC /scannow and it didn’t not find anything to fix.
  • Tried forcing classic mode logon by enabling that in local security policy (found that fix on Citrix forums) but it has a dependancy on the Desktop experience role/feature.

Fix:

  1. Boot the server into safe mode with command prompt
  2. Open group policy editor (run gpedit.msc)double click under “Computer Configuration”/”Windows Settings”/”Security Settings”/”Local Policies”/”Security Options” the Policy “Interactive Logon: Do not Display last user Name”

    select the Option “Enabled”.

    Start – Run – gpupdate

  3. Reboot the server
  4. you should now be able to logon.

And a big thank you to Enrique Soto as he was there for moral support and keeping me awake!