Please wait for User Profile Service... on WIndows 7 takes around 1-2 minutes to process

Question

When loggging into our domain, after entering account credentials the log in process takes around 1-2 minutes before it gets past the User Profile Service, the rest of the process takes 2-3 secs.

This effects all machines running Windows 7 Enteprise 32-bit and is on fairly high spec laptops (SSD drives, i5 2.93Ghz CPU, 4GB memory).

Is there any way to speed this up or is this time delay acceptable?

Thanks in advance.

Solution 1

Have you looked for Event Log errors during the time of logon on these workstations? Also, I'd recommend turning on Verbose messages via GPO for some workstations you can troubleshoot on to see where it is taking the longest.

In a Computer GPO: Administrative Templates\System\Display highly detailed status messages - enable. Run GPUPDATE /force and reboot. Now when you logon you'll get more descriptive messages to help in troubleshooting where the delay is.

Solution 2

We have got the “waiting for the user profile service” problem solved.

For our case, we are not using roaming user profile but we have found that our AD users have specified Home Drive in network drive. So we just changed the AD user home drive to “Local” (with no drive specified)

To validate where is your home drive and home path is just execute SET command in CMD and browse for HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH. For our case, we want to ensure that it's D:\ and \Users\xxxx

Good Luck. I am Number 9

Comments

[jscott]

Are you using network profiles or folder redirection?

[MrGigu]

This is often indicative of a DNS problem

[thecyanbapple]

@jscott folder redirection

[tony roth]

is this logging into the domain for the 1st time on a given workstation or everytime?

[Zoredache]

Why not fire up a sniffer and see what is going on.

[Admin]

Connecting the HOMEPATH, which in my case mapped to a Network folder, was causing the delay. I removed that path from my user account in AD, and tried it and it logged on immediately. Any idea what would be the cause of such a delay, and how we would fix it? When logging in, our scheme is to map the Homepath to a users directory on a network server, to store user information. That path is also on a DFS share, I wonder if there is something slow in that transition that is causing problems?

[Victor Matheus Alves Ramos]

That's wonderful, but what about throwing him a bone in terms of what to look for in way of DNS issue?

[Philip]

1. This is completely wrong and will have no effect on profile loading speed. 2. Non-Administrators will not be able to change the DNS settings. 3. Users should not be changing their DNS settings, they should be getting them from DHCP. 4. This question is answered above, the correct answer has nothing to do with network settings.

[Jordan W.]

that's the risk you run when you try to follow 6yr old advice :) - check this: verboon.info/2012/06/… it's been renamed to Display highly detailed status messages