For those who are not familiar with this, or are relatively new to Windows Server 2003, you may notice every time you shut down or restart the computer you get this annoying "Shutdown Event Tracker" and would like to simply be able to reboot or shutdown the machine without it.
This guide will tell you how to disable this feature!
This is the shutdown event tracker.
![]()
A default Windows Server 2003 will require this information to be filled out every time the machine is shut down, or restarted.
To disable this feature proceed with the following.
Step 1:
Go to Start>Run then type gpedit.msc
This will bring up the GPO Group Policy Object Editor Console.
Once this is open proceed to Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>System as shown below. Once there you will find the Object for Shutdown Event tracking. Double click on the object to open its properties Window.
![]()
Once in the properties page Select the radio button that says "Disabled" then press "Apply" then "Ok" to close the Object Properties Window.
![]()
Once this is done go ahead and close the Group Policy Object Editor Console.
Ok it has been disabled however is not set to work just yet. Now you want to do the following.
Go to Start>Run and run the following command
gpupdate /force
This will force windows to update this policy at the time you make the change rather than waiting for the machine to restart. Now that you have done all of this go ahead and attempt to restart or shutdown the Server/Computer that this is running on. You should be greeted by this beautiful screen
![]()
![]()
You are now done. Enjoy.
Thanks to Xavier1421 for making this a sticky!
This guide will tell you how to disable this feature!
This is the shutdown event tracker.
A default Windows Server 2003 will require this information to be filled out every time the machine is shut down, or restarted.
To disable this feature proceed with the following.
Step 1:
Go to Start>Run then type gpedit.msc
This will bring up the GPO Group Policy Object Editor Console.
Once this is open proceed to Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>System as shown below. Once there you will find the Object for Shutdown Event tracking. Double click on the object to open its properties Window.
Once in the properties page Select the radio button that says "Disabled" then press "Apply" then "Ok" to close the Object Properties Window.
Once this is done go ahead and close the Group Policy Object Editor Console.
Ok it has been disabled however is not set to work just yet. Now you want to do the following.
Go to Start>Run and run the following command
gpupdate /force
This will force windows to update this policy at the time you make the change rather than waiting for the machine to restart. Now that you have done all of this go ahead and attempt to restart or shutdown the Server/Computer that this is running on. You should be greeted by this beautiful screen
You are now done. Enjoy.
Thanks to Xavier1421 for making this a sticky!
