What is Windows 7 doing when you log in / log off? Enable verbose logging!

Do you want to know more about what Windows is doing in the background when your PC is shutting down or starting? There’s a useful registry hack to enable verbose logging. Verbose logging will give you a lot more background information.

When you shut down your computer, Windows stops the services and checks the group policies for example. If you are debugging Windows 7, verbose messages are very handy and will tell you more about what Windows is doing in the background.

In order to enable verbose logging in Windows 7, we need to modify a few registry keys. Let’s get to it.

1. Open up the registry.

2. Uncollapse [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]

3. Next select System and in the right-pane, create a DWORD-registry key:

4. Enter VerboseStatus

5. Double-click on the new registry key and change the value from 0 to 1

6. Reboot to see the verbose messages. Verbose logging is now enabled!

Download Verbose Logging Registry Hack

You can download our registry key to enable verbose logging:

Download Registry Key

Or copy this into notepad, save as .reg file and execute:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

\Policies\System]
“VerboseStatus”=dword:00000001

What is Windows 7 doing in the background?

If you want more information about what Windows is doing in the backround, e.g. which program is currently writing to your hard drive or which programs are currently opened, you can download a special tool called WhatIsMyComputerDoing.

What is my computer doing in the background?