Prevent issues with Windows server reboots

This article describes how to restore your Windows® server to a working
state automatically after a reboot. After you complete the procedures in this
article, you should not need to launch applications manually or apply firewall
rules after your Windows server reboots.

Verify that your server is fully patched

If your Windows server is not fully patched, install all pending updates.

1. Move the cursor to the bottom-right corner of the screen and activate the
   Charms menu.

2. Click Search and type Control Panel.

3. On the ribbon under the search field, click Control Panel.

4. Click System and Security.

5. Click Windows Update to see if there are pending updates to install. If
   so, install the updates at a convenient time.

Automatically start all critical services

1. Review and confirm that you have set critical services for your processes to
   start automatically. Run the following PowerShell® script to grab all
   services that have an automatic startup:

    Get-Service | Select-Object Name, State, StartType | Where-Object StartType -eq 'Automatic' | Format-Table
   

2. Move the cursor to the bottom-right corner of the screen and activate the
   Charms menu.

3. Click Search, then type services.msc.

4. On the ribbon under the search field, click services.msc.

5. In the Services Management window, double-click a service that you want
   to configure for automatic startup.

6. Set the startup type to Automatic.

Perform a test reboot

Next, schedule a maintenance window during off-peak hours and test your work by
rebooting the server. Perform a soft reboot through the Action menu in the
Cloud Control Panel or run the reboot command on the server.

When you perform a test reboot, dedicate time in your maintenance window to
troubleshoot any issues that arise.

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