Login after switch user when 1 user is already logged in takes 6 minutes for second user on Pro/Home

Copper Contributor

Doing fresh Windows 10 PRO install on NVMe SSD and AMD 5950x, 32GB RAM. I have 2 local users on Windows 10 PRO. Login to any user takes 1-2 seconds. But If I login to 1 user and then hit Win+L (switch user) and try to login to second user it takes 1 minute to pass Preparing Windows screen and then another 5 minutes before Start Menu and task bar becomes operational.

More details:

  • I enabled detailed messages in GPO but the only message I see is Preparing Windows

  • This is completely fresh install to new 2TB NVMe SSD. No other drives. I tried to reinstall 3 times.

  • There are no meaningful errors/warnings in Event Viewer. I only get error because Windows are not activated yet at the beginning of the login and then I get an error 'Windows Hello for Business provisioning has encountered an error during policy evaluation. ExitCode: This network connection does not exist. ' at the end. I tried disabling Hello for Business with no effect.

  • I run Windows performance recorder but I don't see anything interesting in the report. I can send the report if anyone can take a look. Also unsurprisingly it shows that there is no load on CPU or other resources.

  • There is no difference if users are admin or not. I tried with 4 users. No matter the combination, first user takes seconds to login and others are very slow.

  • If I sign out the user then next login for any user takes 2 seconds.

  • I even tried installing Windows Home and I get same result.

  • After both users are logged in I can switch fast between them.

  • Computer is connected to the internet

  • Latest 2020H2 fully updated windows, updated drivers

I have no idea what else to try. I tried everything what I could find on the internet. Let me know if you need video or any additional data.

4 Replies
Hi,
on a less powerful system but with M.2 SSD (i7 7700k, 16GB DDR4 RAM @ 3200Mhz), on Windows 10 pro insider (build 21277), I enabled that policy,
then went to Windows settings, made a 2nd offline account for the first time, switched straight to the newly created account from start menu => profile picture icon, took ~20 seconds to make that account ready for the first time and show me the desktop.

after I did that, signed out from that 2nd account, pressed Win + L on my main account, then signed in from login screen into the 2nd account, took ~3 seconds.

difference in our experience could be related to hardware or different version of Windows.

if you haven't already, please file a feedback in feedback hub about the issue you're experiencing.

@HotCakeX This is what I would expect. I don't think hardware makes a big difference here. I'm not chasing seconds but rather it takes 6 minutes for the second logged in user to be fully usable. I don't have anything strange in my build too, just high-end components - 5950x, 32GB DDR4 RAM @ 3200Mhz, RTX 3090, M.2 SSD 2TB 970 Pro Plus, Asus Dark Hero MB. This is it. I even disabled Wifi and second network port from Bios. All settings are stock, I only enabled XMP for memory. 

Zero other software, fresh install Windows 10 PRO (tried Home too) and create additional local account. It happens 100% every time if one account is already logged in. 

It is probably a bug in Windows. Just looking if it happens for someone else too and if someone stumbled on some workaround (like some group policy or something). 

 

P.S1: So one more thing, at one point I was trying everything from the internet and I think I disabled welcome screen from gpo and it started to work as expected, 1 second to login to second account. I tried it a few times - all great. So I created 2 more accounts as I need 4 total. And it break it again. Even 2 original accounts were slow again. I tried to redo what I did - but it did not help. I reinstalled fresh and tried the same again - nothing. This is why I think its a bug and that there is a workaround but I cant find it. 

P.S2: I have another PC with updated windows 10 pro. It is an old PC (i7-2600K, 32GB RAM, SATA SSD) and it has similar problem. I usually only use 1 account on it. But now I tried to login to another account and I see similar behavior: ~1 minute of Welcome screen and then ~5 minutes Start Menu and taskbar are not working (show progress icon if you hover the mouse). Apps from Desktop are working (same on my new pc). I don't remember having this issue earlier. Looks like a bug in 2020H2 update.

Guys,

have a similar observation, with the difference that all my user switches are slow, e.g. my wife is logged on, powers down the system, I boot the next morning, log on and then it takes 10-15 minutes before I can get to the start menu. Can start programs via desktop shortcut though. PC is top-of the line AMD Ryzen 7 with 8 cores, so that should not be the problem.
Very annoying. Any new ideas?
Bernhard

@Bernhard_F_Kraft was able to diagnose "something" using xperf as mentioned here: https://superuser.com/a/1012442/39364 wish there were a better answer but...