Enable Logging for Group Policy Management Console
Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2
To troubleshoot problems with administering Group Policies using the Group Policy Management Console, you can enable GPMC logging. This logging covers all Group Policy administration tasks, except editing Group Policy objects.
GPMC logging, by default, is set to only log errors. To avoid using unnecessary disk space, you should leave GPMC logging at the default setting. You can enable GPMC logging to gather verbose troubleshooting information when an administrative task causes errors.
Warning
This section contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, see Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry on the Microsoft Web site (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=35500).
To enable GPMC logging on the administrative computer
Log on to the administration computer as the administrator.
Click Start, Run, and then run Regedit to add the following registry value (or, , if the value already exists, modify it):
Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Diagnostics
Enter the following:
Value: gpmgmttracelevel
Value Type: REG_DWORD
Value Data: 2 (Hexadecimal)
Gpmgmttracelevel can have the following values:
NORMAL 0x00000001
VERBOSE 0x00000002
The default value is NORMAL (0x00000001).
To restrict GPMC logging to file output
Log on to the administration computer as the administrator.
Click Start, Run, and then run Regedit to add the following registry value (or, if the value already exists, modify it):
Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Diagnostics
Enter the following:
Value: gpmgmtlogfileonly
Value Type: REG_DWORD
Value Data: 1 (Hexadecimal)
Gpmgmtlogfileonly can have the following values:
LOGTOFILEONLY 0x00000001
LOGTOFILEANDDEBUGGER 0x00000002
The default value is LOGTOFILEONLY (0x00010001).
GPMC writes to the following log files in the %Temp folder:
GPmgmt.log: contains all other GPMC logging information.
GPmgmtManaged.log: Contains logging information for the reporting functionality.