Profile Bloat in Azure VM and VMware VDI: A Policy-Driven Strategy for Reducing Storage Growth
OneDrive profile bloat is one of those issues that often starts as a minor desktop optimization discussion, but quickly becomes a storage, performance, and governance problem at enterprise scale. In Azure Virtual Machines and VMware VDI environments, when OneDrive is tied to the user profile, the sync cache, local file state, and stale content can accumulate over time and create unnecessary growth in profile containers, VHD/VHDX files, and backup overhead. The result is higher infrastructure cost, slower login and logoff times, and inconsistent user experience across pooled or multi-session desktops. This is not a problem that should be solved by disabling OneDrive. In most enterprise scenarios, OneDrive remains a critical collaboration workload, but it must be managed as a controlled service rather than a user-local convenience. The most effective strategy is to install OneDrive at the machine level, enforce policy by user class and device context, and use Files On-Demand and cloud content dehydration to minimize local persistence. This approach preserves user productivity while reducing the operational impact on virtualized desktop infrastructure. A policy-driven design is particularly important in multi-user environments where not all workloads should be treated the same. Developer desktops, standard business users, and restricted or consultant user groups have different productivity needs and different data-risk profiles. For example: General business users may benefit from a balanced policy with Files On-Demand enabled and moderate dehydration thresholds. Developer or QA environments may require more local flexibility while still controlling profile growth. Restricted or external-user populations should have strong sync boundaries, personal account restrictions, and minimal local persistence. To support this model, organizations should align their deployment around a few core principles: install OneDrive at the machine level in the standard image or build pipeline use group policy and loopback processing to apply user-specific policy based on OU or security group enable Files On-Demand by default configure Storage Sense and cloud content dehydration based on workload profile restrict personal Microsoft account sync in higher-risk scenarios use FSLogix compaction and profile optimization as secondary controls, not as the primary solution This model is especially relevant for organizations running Azure Virtual Desktop, Azure VM-based workloads, VMware Horizon, and other multi-user Windows desktop environments. The benefits are practical and measurable: lower local storage consumption, reduced VHD/VHDX growth, improved desktop performance, lower backup cost, and stronger governance over enterprise data movement. As IT and endpoint engineering teams continue modernizing virtual desktop environments, I would encourage us to think of OneDrive not as a user-profile feature, but as an enterprise-managed workload with policy boundaries. When implemented properly, this gives us the best balance between productivity, storage efficiency, and security. I’d be very interested in hearing how others are handling this in their environments: Are you deploying OneDrive at the machine level? Are you enforcing Files On-Demand by default? How are you segmenting policy by user class or device type? Have you measured the impact on VHD/VHDX growth or profile size after enforcement? Source document: https://github.com/RodrigoACriscuolo/criscra/blob/main/Home.Profile-Bloat
Windows server 2022 is not updating with latest patch KB5126655
Windows server 2022 is not updating with latest patch KB5126655. However, successfully installed 2026-10 Cumulative update for .Net framework. Last successful Cumulative update for the operating system version 21H2 is 2026-06. Try to update the latest patch manually, the server is rolling back the patch.
Error install Cumulative Update for .NET on Server 24H2 (0x80070bc9)
Hello everyone, I became the problem first during the .NET updates in 08/2026 and it persists until now. During the installation of KB5127690 came an error 0x80070bc9. What I have tried: - run the WSUS troubleshooter - check EFI partition space (200MB / 100% free) - rename the update cache folders - run DISM and SFC - check pending reboot registry keys Unfortunately I did not find solution how to solve this problem. There is link to CBS.log from the server (Windows Server 24H2 (26100.33650), VM on Hyper-V). Many thanks for an answer in advance. R.
Hyper-V Ubuntu VM: Memory Demand Different at Hyper-V and OS Level
Hello all, Looking for advice and insight for a strange problem we are experiencing. We have a cluster of Windows Server 2025 hosts, on which we are using Hyper-V manager to run mostly Windows VMs. To access these VMs, we are using Apache Guacamole which is hosted on a Ubuntu VM on our cluster. We originally assigned 32GB memory to this VM. Recently, we have noticed an increased memory demand for this VM at the Hyper-V level which prompted us to increase the assigned memory of the VM to 64GB. Despite this, the memory demand has continued rising despite no apparent change in the usage of Guacamole. When logging into the VM and observing the memory usage here, the VM is using no where near the amount that is assigned. As shown in the attached images which were taken at the same time: Memory Demand Hyper-V Level (And seems to be continuing to increase...): Memory Demand OS Level: This morning, the memory demand spiked to 95GB on Hyper-V but at OS level was only 12GB and we were forced to restart the VM. The biggest concern is where this discrepancy is coming from and the potential unnecessary disruptions that will be caused from having to restart/rebuild the VM. Has anyone experienced this sort of issue before and found a fix? Can anyone suggest how to debug this issue? TIAQuick machine recovery is now supported on Windows Server 2025
Quick machine recovery is now available for Windows Server 2025. Quick machine recovery can help servers recover from critical boot failures by using Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) to search Windows Update for an applicable remediation. Recovery is dependent on an applicable remediation being available. On Windows Server 2025, quick machine recovery is disabled by default. Administrators can use Group Policy to enable and configure the capability for servers in their environment. Rollout schedule Quick machine recovery is available for Windows Server 2025 editions with the October 2026 security update or later installed. Impact on your organization There is no change to the default recovery behavior for Windows Server 2025 after installing the update because Quick machine recovery is disabled by default. If you choose to enable this feature, you can then use cloud remediation to retrieve and apply targeted remediations through Windows Update when a server encounters a critical boot failure. Administrators can also configure automatic remediation, which allows the server to check for an available cloud-based remediation without user interaction. Configure quick machine recovery by using Group Policy - Windows Server | Microsoft Learn Quick machine recovery | Microsoft Learn
Windows Server 2025 Standard - failing to load sign in screen
Hello all Has anyone come across an issue with login into their Win Svr 2025 Standard via the GUI or RDP? Had a good google and can't see much of info out there but since last week I lost the ability to RDP or even locally sign into my server running Hyper-V, VMs work fine. When connecting via RDP the session is initiated - get past credential prompt and cert warning but never gets to establish the session. Since the server is hosted on prem, I was able to pop down to the comms room but when I tried to login via GUI after hitting Ctrl+Alt+Del loading screen comes up but never follows through to display username and password textboxes. Since this is a production system I can't just reboot the whole lot. In the meantime, I've tried restarting both WinLogon.exe and LogonUI.exe processes via CIMSession both were showing twice and after terminating each the number of processes come down to 1 but still no joy signing in. Any ideas community? New to the community so apologies in advance if I posted in the wrong place. Best wishes Michal
Windows Server 2025 hotpaching
Hola a todos, estoy evaluando la actualización de nuestra infraestructura de servidores hacia Windows Server 2025 Datacenter. Me interesa especialmente la funcionalidad de Hotpatching para aplicar parches de seguridad sin requerir reinicios mensuales en los servidores de producción. Mi duda es: ¿Es obligatorio mantener la máquina conectada de forma permanente a Azure Arc para poder beneficiarnos del Hotpatching en un entorno físico tradicional/On-Premises, o existen mecanismos para distribuir estas actualizaciones mediante un servidor WSUS local Microsoft Configuration Manager en entornos aislados? Agradezco de antemano vuestra ayuda.
Assign IP Address for Windows Server 2025 VM on Hyper-V
I have built my first Windows Server 2025 VM on HyperV and trying to assign an IP address. I want the VM's to be like an actual server so I Created an external vswitch. The HyperV server IP is 172.16.1.41 with a physical gateway of 172.16.1.5. I have tried to assign the new VM with 172.16.1.42/255.255.255.0 and the Gateway is 172.16.1.5 also. However, I cannot get a positive ping. Do I need another VSWITCH configured or what am I missing?
Hyper-v Ubuntu 26.04LTS Multiple DHCP entries
Good evening, am running windows server 2022 datacenter edition, which is running multiple hyper-v machines. I have been installing a new instance of ubuntu 26.04.1LTS but have noticed something weird. Maybe you could assist. Issue: When fresh install Ubuntu 26.04.1 into a VM using hyper-v, I notice 2 IP addresses appear in windows DHCP (192.168.40.20, 192.168.40.21). When I shut down the instance only one disappears (192.168.40.21). If I delete 192.168.40.20 and restart the VM instance both Ip addresses reappear in DHCP. Points to note: Image was downloaded direct off the website with no changes (have redownloaded to make sure image is not broken) Have tried using a different name for the server Have noticed the ubuntu instance only picks up one address (192.168.40.21) for the adaptor. Am unable to ping 192.168.40.20 or connect to that address via ssh. Would anyone have any idea, where the second IP address would be coming from in DHCP?
