Please wait for the System Event Notification Service
“When logging off and closing the RDS window on the Remote Desktop server, the notice ‘Please wait for the System Event Notification Service’ appears, and it remains when signing on again. Furthermore, processes for other users on the RDS host may stall and performance may suffer. How can I solve this?”
Three solutions to Windows Server “Please wait for the System Event Notification Service”
“Please wait for the System Event Notification Service” is pretty normal on Windows Server, for example, Windows Server 2012 R2. But don’t worry, here in this part, we provide you with three tested solutions to fix this problem.
Method 1. Kill the winlogon.exe process
Step 1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to invoke Task Manager.
Step 2. Go to the Users tab, expand the user with the status Disconnected. Right-click on the Windows Logon Application processes for one of those users and select Go to details.
Step 3. Find winlogon.exe process and note down its PID.
Step 4. Press Win + X, and then select Windows PowerShell (Admin).
Step 5. In PowerShell, type the following command and press Enter:
kill -id PID
Note: Replace PID with the one you noted down in the previous step.
Step 6. Press “Y” key to agree to kill the process.
Step 7. Close and re-open the Task Manager to ensure that the connection is closed. Then perform the same steps, and kill the winlogon.exe process for any Disconnected user.
Method 2. Restart the Print Spooler
Step 1. Press Win + R to open the Run dialog box. Type in "services.msc" and press OK.
Step 2. Find and right-click Print Spooler, and then choose Restart.
Step 3. Reconnect to the RDP Server after restarting the Print Spooler to see whether the problem persists.
Method 3. Set Windows to terminate the unresponsive services or programs automatically
Step 1. Press Win + R and then type in “regedit” to open the Registry Editor.
Step 2. Navigate here: Computer > HKEY_USERS > .DEFAULT > Control Panel > Desktop. Right click on an empty space (on the right pane), and select New > String Value.
Step 3. Name the new value as AutoEndTasks and press Enter. Double click it, at the Value Data field, type 1, and click OK.
Step 4. Reboot the computer.
Free Remote Desktop alternative for Windows Servers: AnyViewer
When you have encountered RDP errors and are unable to use it, another option for you is to use the third-party remote desktop software, for example, AnyViewer, which brings you the easiest, fastest, and most convenient remote connection experience. By the way, AnyViewer is perfectly compatible with Windows Server 2022/2019/2016/2012 R2.
Step 1. Download, install, launch AnyViewer on both computers.
Note: AnyViewer also has an iOS version, you are also able to remotely control your PC from your iPhone or iPad.
Step 2. Go to Log in, and then click Sign up. (If you already have signed up on its official website, you can log in directly.)
Step 3. Fill in the signup information.
Step 4. Then you can see you successfully logged in to AnyViewer. Your device will automatically be assigned to the account you've logged in to.
Step 5. Log in to the same AnyViewer account on the two devices, then click Remote control to achieve unattended remote access.
Note: If you upgrade your account to a Professional or Enterprise plan, then you’ll have more rights. You can assign more devices. Also, you can connect to another computer in privacy mode, which means you can black the screen and block the mouse and keyboard of the remote computer.
Step 6. Then you can see the screen of your office computer and take full control of it.
Conclusion
This post mainly introduces three methods to fix the “Please wait for the System Event Notification Service” problem on Windows Server. Another option we offered here in this post is to choose a third-party RDP alternative, for example, AnyViewer. With AnyViewer, you can easily start remote connections between computers.