I don’t know about your experiences with server manager, but mine are less then positive from a resource usage point of view. On decent hardware I’ve seen this peg the CPU to 100% for a good minute. Even on a multi-core system this can be a problem where you have business processes running.
Server Manager, by default starts up whenever you log into Windows Server 2008. While there is a check box that allows you to disable the auto-launch of server manager, it’s a per user setting, and you have to do it on every server you log into. Thankfully there is a solution. This article lists two registry settings that you can change that disable the auto-launch. Couple this with group policy and you no longer have to worry.
| Setting Name | Location | Default Value | Possible Values |
| Do not open Server Manager at logon | HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Server Manager | 0 | 0 to disable and open the window normally; 1 to enable and prevent the window from opening. |
| Do not open Initial Configuration Tasks at logon | HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Server Manager\Initial Configuration Tasks | 0 | 0 to disable and open the window normally; 1 to enable and prevent the window from opening. |
I prefer to put a shortcut to Administrative tools on my desktop, and from there I can access only the functionality I need.