New accounts on my Windows Server 2012 look like this when logging in for the first time:
As you can see, the desktop is empty. It is not, there are in fact files on the desktop, but they are not shown here. Somebody enabled a policy that hides everything from the desktop, while there are in fact items (this is the Desktop folder in Explorer):
Which policy is this so I can disable it? I can confirm it is not User Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Desktop\Hide and disable all items on the desktop
.