This has to be one of the weirdest issues I've ever seen, and after a week or so of troubleshooting (including an open ticket with VMWare), I thought I'd throw it out to the group.
We have one associate who can no longer reach the Windows GUI desktop after logging in. Everything else appears functional (I can launch Task Manager, then launch notepad, appwiz, regedit, msconfig, Word, Excel, Outlook, IE, etc. with no issues), but she never reaches the desktop. Launching explorer.exe from TM starts then immediately stops the process. If I launch IE, then browse to c:\ or similar location, Windows Explorer launches, but only launches the Explorer window, not the GUI. VMWare View 5.3.0, build 1427931, using View Persona and floating pools set to refresh on logoff.
These are some of the notes we've made so far:
- Out of seven separate floating pools I've tried, the user is able to log on to six of them with no issues.
- She can log on to the template machine for the specific pool in question with no issues.
- When we create a new pool with the same template, she has the same issue and cannot log on, whether via console or using VM Horizon View 5.3 via RDP or PCoIP.
- A user account copied from hers, with all the same GPO settings can log on to the machine with no issues. This includes putting the VM into the same OU (and getting the same GPO settings) as the template.
- Other associates can log on to the exact same pool (and, indeed, the exact same virtual machine) with no issues using either console, RDP, or PCoIP.
- We've tried deleting/archiving her Persona profile, with no issues.
The issue started when the associate went to do task force at another property. Prior to doing task force, she was on this floating pool with no problems. When she went to go do task force, the staff there were unable to get all of her systems online (at both properties), so I created a dedicated pool just for her, with the intention of deleting it when she came back. During the time at the other property, she was a member of several other security groups. In addition, that property uses ScriptLogic's Desktop Authority, which she would have been subject to. Upon this user's return to our property, I removed the security groups for the other property before noticing the problem (and forgot to record them before removing them).
I originally thought the issue might be DA-related, but I do not see any processes running from them. Additionally, I've looked at her startup processes (via msconfig, HKCU\\Run, HKLM\\Run, and startup folders), and disabled everything not directly Microsoft-related, and this does not change anything; still not able to launch the GUI. I can boot into Safe Mode with Networking, though, and it goes through just fine. Enabling boot logging shows error messages relating to NDProxy.sys and srv.sys; however, these same error messages appear on working machines. Additionally, the same errors appear when other users log on to that machine successfully.
Anyone have any ideas? VMWare support is completely stumped, as are a couple of my co-workers and I.