diff --git a/src/ci_orchestrator/winimage/assets/autounattend.win2025.xml b/src/ci_orchestrator/winimage/assets/autounattend.win2025.xml
index 0425956..f833d68 100644
--- a/src/ci_orchestrator/winimage/assets/autounattend.win2025.xml
+++ b/src/ci_orchestrator/winimage/assets/autounattend.win2025.xml
@@ -142,6 +142,24 @@
           <Path>reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v Shell /t REG_SZ /d cmd.exe /f</Path>
           <Description>Set interactive shell to cmd.exe</Description>
         </RunSynchronousCommand>
+        <!-- Stop Server Manager auto-launching even at the first logon: the
+             ServerManager scheduled task is the actual launcher on WS2025;
+             the registry keys are belt-and-suspenders. -->
+        <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
+          <Order>2</Order>
+          <Path>schtasks /Change /TN "\Microsoft\Windows\Server Manager\ServerManager" /Disable</Path>
+          <Description>Disable Server Manager auto-launch task</Description>
+        </RunSynchronousCommand>
+        <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
+          <Order>3</Order>
+          <Path>reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ServerManager" /v DoNotOpenServerManagerAtLogon /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f</Path>
+          <Description>Do not open Server Manager at logon (HKLM)</Description>
+        </RunSynchronousCommand>
+        <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
+          <Order>4</Order>
+          <Path>reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ServerManager" /v DoNotOpenAtLogon /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f</Path>
+          <Description>Do not open Server Manager at logon (policy)</Description>
+        </RunSynchronousCommand>
       </RunSynchronous>
     </component>
   </settings>