Enable Shutdown Event Tracker in Windows XP

How can I enable the Shutdown Event Tracker on a Windows XP machine?

Shutdown Event Tracker provides a way for IT professionals to consistently track why users restart or shut down their computers. It does not document why users choose other options, such as Log off and Hibernate. It gathers the reasons users give for restarts and shutdowns to help create a comprehensive picture of an organization’s system environment. Shutdown Event Tracker is enabled by default and supported on all Windows Server 2003 family of operating systems. It is disabled by default and unsupported on Windows XP Professional.
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To control the use of the Shutdown Event Tracker, perform the following:

  1. Start regedit.exe.
  2. Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'SOFTWARE'Microsoft'Windows'CurrentVersion'Reliability
  1. Double-click ShutdownReasonUI, and set it to 1 to enable or 0 to disable.
  2. Click OK.
  3. Close regedit.

A reboot is NOT necessary for this change to take effect.
From now on, whenever you try to shutdown your computer you will receive the following dialog-box:

An easier way is:

  1. Open Group Policy, then load the group policy you want to apply the change to.

Note: On a computer that is not a part of a domain you can set this feature locally by running GPEDIT.MSC from the Run command (only on XP Pro).

  1. Expand Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System.
  2. Double-click Display Shutdown Event Tracker.
  3. Select Enabled.
  4. Select the Never or Always option (depending on your needs), then click OK.

  1. Click OK to close all dialog boxes.

Links

Shutdown Event Trackerlink out ico
System Shutdown Reason Codeslink out ico