How to receive verbose startup, shutdown, logon, and logoff status messages

This article describes how to configure Microsoft Windows 2000 so that you receive verbose startup, shutdown, logon, and logoff status messages. In scenarios where you are troubleshooting slow startup, shutdown, logon, or logoff behavior, you may find it helpful to enable verbose logging.

To enable verbose logging, use one of the methods that is described in this section.

Use Group Policy

You can use Group Policy to switch between normal and verbose status messages. If you are in a domain environment and you want to enable verbose logging on a group of computers, follow these steps:

1. Start the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in.
2. Right-click the container for the domain or the organizational unit to which you want to apply the policy settings, and then click Properties.
3. Click the Group Policy tab.
4. Click New, and then type a descriptive name for the new Group Policy object (GPO) that is created.
5. Click the new GPO and click Edit.
6. Browse to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System.
7. Double-click Verbose vs normal status messages, and then select Enable.

If you are using a standalone computer or if you want to enable verbose logging on only one computer, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type gpedit.msc, and then click OK.
3. Browse to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System.
4. Double-click Verbose vs normal status messages, and then click Enable. To force an immediate refresh of the computer policy settings, run the following command at a command prompt:
   secedit /refreshpolicy machine_policy /enforce

Use Registry Editor

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

You can use Registry Editor to switch between normal and verbose status messages. To use Registry Editor to enable verbose logging, follow these steps:

1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
2. Locate and click the following registry key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
4. Double-click the new key that is created, type verbosestatus in the Value Name box, and then type 1 in the Data value box.

Note If the following key is present, and if the value is set to 1, status messages are not displayed:

If verbose logging is not enabled, you will still receive normal status messages such as "Applying your personal settings..." or "Applying computer settings..." when you start up, shut down, log on, or log off the computer. However, if verbose logging is enabled, you will receive additional information, such as "RPCSS is starting" or "Waiting for machine group policies to finish...."