Configure the System State Data feature on your local computer

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

To configure the System State Data feature on your local computer

  1. Open Group Policy.

  2. Navigate to the Activate Shutdown Event Tracker System State Data feature policy, and double-click it.

    Where?

    • Local Computer Policy/Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/System

  3. On the Setting tab, click Not Configured, Enabled, or Disabled.

  4. Click Apply, and then click OK.

Notes

  • To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. If the computer is joined to a domain, members of the Domain Admins group might be able to perform this procedure. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure.

  • To open Group Policy, click Start, click Run, type gpedit.msc, and then click OK.

  • When this policy is enabled, Shutdown Event Tracker writes out a system state data file when a user with shutdown user rights designates a restart or shutdown as unplanned. This file is stored in the %windir%\system32\LogFiles\Shutdown\ directory, and only members of the Administrators group may view it or optionally send it to Microsoft.

  • You can configure the number of days a system state data file will be saved to the %windir%\system32\LogFiles\Shutdown\ directory using the registry. See "Resources" in Related Topics for more information.

  • To view Microsoft's privacy policy on error reporting, see "Resources" in Related Topics.

  • When this policy is disabled, Shutdown Event Tracker will not create a system state data file in the event of an unplanned restart or shutdown.

  • If you do not configure the System State Data feature, the default behavior occurs: By default, this feature is always enabled on the Windows Server 2003 family operating systems.

  • To apply the policy setting to a remote computer, see "Group Policy" under Related Topics, below.

  • You cannot use Group Policy to manage computers running Windows Server 4.0, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, and Windows XP Home Edition.

  • Administrative Templates provide a friendlier user interface (UI) for editing the registry than does Registry Editor (Regedit.exe), as well as an added degree of security: They expose only the registry keys that Microsoft has determined to be frequently useful.

Information about functional differences

  • Your server might function differently based on the version and edition of the operating system that is installed, your account permissions, and your menu settings. For more information, see Viewing Help on the Web.

See Also

Concepts

Enable error reporting
Group Policy (pre-GPMC)
Shutdown Event Tracker overview
Configure the System State Data feature on a domain or organizational unit
Shutdown Event Tracker Resources