Server 2008 R2 Slow startup while applying computer settings

I’ve had some trouble with slow logon on Windows Server 2008 R2. The “Applying Computer Settings”-part takes about two minutes!

The eventlog shows two records about this issue:

The winlogon notification subscriber <GPClient> is taking long time to handle the notification event (CreateSession).

And:

The winlogon notification subscriber <GPClient> took xxx seconds to handle the notification event (CreateSession).

I stumbled upon some possible solutions. The first was updating the NIC driver. As I’m using the wireless network card, I’m only updating this one.

Updating NIC driver

Old driver:

New driver:

Drivers are updated but the logon time wasn’t reduced by a single second.

Disable Computer GPO’s

Second try was moving the computer object to a unmanaged OU (without policies applied), run gpupdate /force and rebooted some times .. but the problem still exists.

GpNetworkStartTimeoutPolicyValue

Third try: adding GpNetworkStartTimeoutPolicyValue with value 1 to the registry:

Maybe it’s a service or application on the computer itself .. ? I disabled some 3rd party (non Microsoft) services, but the problem remains.

Disable IPv6?

–> no luck

Disable CardReader?

–> no effect

Disable Autotuning?

netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

Didn’t solved it either, so I enabled Autotuning again:

netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal

Patches/Hotfixes?

KB2617858: Unexpectedly slow startup or logon process in Windows Server 2008 R2 or in Windows 7

KB2525332: You encounter a long logon time after you enable the "Do not automatically make redirected folders available offline" Group Policy setting in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2

–> This hotfix fixes the slow logon issue for me! (I’m using redirected folders!)