If you manage Windows Servers, you may have encountered a difficult problem. Your Remote Desktop Servers stop working at a specific time of day. All user sessions seem to hang, often showing a black screen. New users cannot log in. The only way to fix it is to restart the entire server. This guide offers advice on this issue, based on reports from IT professionals who have found a likely cause and a solution.
This problem can be a major source of disruption for any business. When a server goes down, work stops. Finding the root cause is critical. Many IT teams have discovered the source is not a Windows update or a hardware failure. Instead, the evidence points toward a conflict with a specific security software: Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security.
Table of Contents
Understanding the Symptoms of the Server Freeze
To know if this is the problem you are facing, it helps to look at the exact signs. IT workers have reported a very specific pattern of behavior when the servers stop responding.
Here is what to look for:
- Sudden Freezes: The Windows Server instances suddenly stop responding. This often happens around the same time each day, with some reports noting it occurs around 2:00 PM Central European Time.
- Active Sessions Hang: Users who are already logged into the server through a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connection find their session is stuck. They might see a black screen or a frozen image of their desktop.
- New Logins Fail: Any attempt to start a new remote desktop session to the affected server will fail. The login process never completes.
- No Error Logs: One of the most puzzling parts of this issue is the lack of information. When you check the Windows Event Viewer, there are no errors or warnings recorded at the time of the freeze. This makes troubleshooting very hard.
- A Restart Is the Only Fix: The only way to get the server working again is to perform a hard restart. After the reboot, everything returns to normal until the next freeze occurs.
This issue has been seen on various versions of Windows Server, including 2019, 2022, and even pre-release versions of 2025. It affects servers that are standalone as well as those that are part of a larger Remote Desktop Services (RDS) farm. The type of user profile, whether local or a User Profile Disk (UPD), does not seem to make a difference.
Identifying the Connection to Trend Micro
The common element across numerous reports from different companies is the presence of Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security (WFBS) on the affected servers. An IT employee supporting several clients noticed this pattern. All the clients experiencing these daily freezes had this specific antivirus product installed.
Driven by a need to solve the problem, the IT team decided to test a theory. They took one of the affected servers and completely uninstalled Trend Micro WFBS. The result was immediate and clear. The server stopped freezing. It continued to run without any interruptions, day after day.
This outcome strongly suggests that a component of Trend Micro’s security suite is conflicting with the Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server. Since the initial report, other administrators have confirmed this finding. They too uninstalled the software and saw the freezing problem disappear.
What You Should Do Next
If your servers are showing these exact symptoms and you use Trend Micro, you have a clear path forward. You should approach this carefully to confirm the cause in your own environment.
- Document Everything: Keep a log of when the freezes happen. Note the exact time and which servers are affected. Confirm that the symptoms you see match the ones described here, especially the black screen and the lack of event logs.
- Conduct a Controlled Test: Choose one affected server, preferably one that is not critical or during a low-traffic period. Uninstall Trend Micro WFBS from that single machine.
- Monitor the Server: Observe the test server closely for the next few days. See if it continues to operate normally at the time the freezes used to occur. If the server remains stable, you have likely found the cause.
- Contact Trend Micro Support: Once you have evidence, you should contact Trend Micro’s technical support. Provide them with all the information you have gathered. Explain the steps you took to identify the issue. The company may have a patch, an update, or a specific configuration setting that can resolve this conflict without requiring you to remove the product.
- Evaluate Your Security Solution: If a fix from the vendor is not available or does not work, you may need to consider your options. This could involve finding a different antivirus product that is fully compatible with your RDS environment. The stability of your servers is too important to leave to chance.
Security software must run deep inside the operating system to protect it. Sometimes, this deep integration can cause unexpected conflicts with other essential services like RDP. A scheduled scan, a background process, or a real-time protection module in the antivirus program might be interfering with how user sessions are managed, leading to the system-wide freeze. By methodically testing and confirming the source of the conflict, you can restore stability to your server environment.