Naughty, But Nice Windows Server 2008 Settings

I developed these nice ideas while testing Windows Server 2008 machines.  It goes without saying that employing many of these ideas on a production network would be naughty.  However, I bet that at least one setting is nice to use in even the most secure organization. 

Incidentally, a few people are using Server 2008 as their desktop instead of Vista, in which case these settings could be nice.

The purpose of the Shutdown Event Tracker is worthy, namely to help you troubleshoot Windows server problems.  Yet there is a general feeling that this interface is more bother than it's worth.  What happens by default is that anytime you restart a Windows Server, up pops an irritating menu.  If this is a planned shutdown then you are resentful for having to take the time to type in a message, if there is something wrong, you are too busy thinking of a solution to waste time grappling with extra menus.  As a result you probably want to get rid of this Shutdown Event Tracker dialog box, especially on a test machine.

How to Disable the Shutdown Event Tracker

Disabling the Shutdown Event Tracker is a job for group policy, thus the easiest way to launch the editor is to click on Taskbar's Start button, then in the Start Search dialog box type: gpedit.msc. Note: you must include the .msc extension.  Next, navigate along this path:

Computer Configuration
  Policies
    Administrative Templates
      System:- Display Shutdown Event Tracker 

The crucial point is that 'Display Shutdown Event Tracker' is an actual group policy setting in the root of the System folder, and not a sub folder. 

Once selected, it's a trivial task to double click the Shutdown Event Tracker, and select, 'Disable'.

Trap: If you use the Group Policy Management Editor instead of the Local Group Policy editor (gpedit), then make sure that you are aware of the Domain Controller Group Policy, in addition to the Default Domain Policy.