Blank usernames on the Users tab of Task Manager

Question

We have a Hyper-V virtualized remote desktop server farm with eight remote desktop servers. On occasion, a server will have users with blank usernames on the Users tab of Task Manager. Once you see one of them show up, more blank usernames will start showing up throughout the day. The problem is that the server starts to slow down after the first user with no username appears and eventually when several more blank usernames appear, no one will be able to remote to that remote desktop server. The only way to get rid of these users is to kill off the individual running processes because you can't log them off or disconnect the session (this does not fix the slow down issue). Eventually the server will need to be restarted to fully resolve this issue. When one server has this issue, it will slow down new users connecting to the gateway server until you remove that server from the list of servers that users can connect to.

Does anyone know why blank usernames appear in the users tab or what is actually causing this slow down issue?

Thank You,

Brian

Answer 1

Hi

Just encountered same problem in 2023 on Server 2012R2, but since 2012R2 is EOL, I assume it will never get solved.

Tried this:

https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/2359-kill-a-terminal-session-on-a-server

But that also couldn't kill the "empty" disconnected user, that in My case was session 0

KR
Kim

Answer 2

Hi,
Have you patched your RDS system fully with Windows Update and Hotfix? In general, update/hotfix is helpful for resolving some known issues and improving the performance.
Also ending the terminal service in Task Manager and restart it to check.
Best Regards,
Carl

Answer 3

They are fully updated as of July since our patch week for August hasn't started yet. I don't know of any specific hotfixes for this issue, so if you've seen some, please let me know.

Answer 4

@Brian Henry

Were you ever able to figure out what was causing it in your farm?
We're having the same problem in ours. Comes and goes, very erratically.

Answer 5

@Brian Henry @Robert Lawton @Carl Fan @bhupender kundu Anyone resolved this issue?