By design, whenever you shutdown or reboot a Windows Server 2008, an Event Tracker dialog box appears. Many techies get annoyed with having to give a reason for every reboot. Their irritation is
compounded because after they click restart they cannot just click OK, they
have to type something in the Comments box.
Incidentally, I have
rarely seen anyone type anything sensible in the Comment box, which is another
reason to disable the Shutdown Event Tracker.
My favourite method to disable the Shutdown Dialog box is through Group Policy.
Here is an occasion where you need to pay attention to detail, there are at least three traps for the unwary. The
first trap is applying the policy to the entire domain instead of just one OU.
Another place that you could apply the disable shutdown tracker setting is to the Domain Controllers Group Policy.
As you launch gpedit.msc, ask yourself
this, would this policy be part of the Computer Configuration or the User configuration? The answer is that Shutdown Event Tracker is a Computer Configuration.
Incidentally as you type gpedit remember the .msc extension otherwise
nothing happens. See more on
gpedit.
Complete Group Policy path to disable Shutdown Event Tracker:
Local
Computer (or Default Domain) Policy
Computer
Configuration
Administrative Templates
System Display Shutdown Event Tracker
Note 1:
Choose the correct setting, Display Shutdown Event Tracker. See screen
shot to the right.
Note 2: Don't fall at the last hurdle, make sure that you disable Display
Shutdown Event Tracker (Avoid the Enable box).
Note 3: One more trick. Go to the cmd prompt and type gpupdate /force. The
advantage of this technique is that you can test the
settings without actually rebooting the Windows 2008 Server.
Encouraging computers to sleep when not in use is a great idea -
until you are away from your desk and need a file on that remote sleeping machine!
Wake-On-LAN really will save you that long walk to awaken a hibernating
machine; however my reason for encouraging you to download this utility is
just because it's so much fun sending those 'Magic Packets'. As Wake-On-LAN (WOL) is free, see
if I am right, and you get a kick from arousing those sleeping machines.
WOL also has business uses for example, wakening machines so that they can have
their patches applied.
I hear rumours that you can also hack the registry to Disable
Microsoft's Shutdown
Event Tracker. I have to confess that I could not get this official method to work. When I read the information it appeared that
'ShutdownReasonUI' is the critical DWORD.
This is what Microsoft say: "Shutdown Event Tracker references the Group Policy key. If the Group Policy key is not present, then
this key can be configured as '0' (off), or '1' (on)."
What worries me is this sentence. "If the Group Policy key is not present and this key is invalid or missing, then Shutdown Event Tracker is off."
Clearly I am missing something here. I tried saving the registry, making the change to Shutdown Event Tracker, then saving the registry again. Next, I examined the two registry files with
Windiff. Nothing. No significant difference. Naturally there were time differences, and I could see the Group Policy sequence numbers updating, but nothing in the above HKLM \Reliability\ or
anywhere nearby. Puzzling.
Jason Murray kindly wrote in with the following enlightening information.
Enabled the value is 1
Disabled the value is 0 Not Configured - No key at all
How did I find this setting?
Opened up the GPO editor Enabled the settings Ran gpupdate /force Finally, I checked the output under Administrative Policies. It
lists the registry location there.
The Group Policy provides an elegant solution to those who dislike the Shutdown Event Tracker
menu. If you try this technique, pay attention to detail, there are
several places where you could configure the wrong command to disable the
shutdown tracker.
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