In search of ... Windows registry hack to display boot progress

[barney]

I recently encountered a registry change that will allow Windows - 7 only? not certain - to display loading information on the boot screen.  It's installed on one of the Win7 laptops.  Now I wish to install in on another laptop and on the desktop box.  But I cannot seem to find it again.  Seems as though it'd be easy enough to research - problem is too much data returned.  Anyone know of it?

[40hz]

I'm not familiar with a registry hack to do that. Were you thinking of enabling the NoGUIboot option in MSCONFIG?

For day to day startup monitoring and analysis, you might be happier just installing a free copy of Soluto.

[barney]

Tried Soluto, but it wasn't particularly happy on the box where I installed it .

I did find the registry key I was seeking:  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System.VerboseStatus - VerboseStatus had to be added as a DWORD - value 1 shows status, 0 does not.

This doesn't show actual boot status,i.e., before login, but shows more detail after login.  Dunno that it's all that useful, but it is kinda nice to know why so much time elapses between password entry and application load start .  And it has shown me update hangs a couple of times, so I at least had a starting point for problem resolution.

[40hz]

New one for me!

Thx. I'll add it to my tech KB. Never know when it might come in handy. 

[Curt]

6 February 2001 by Snakefoot

Increase the level of status message being shown during startup and shutdown to a more clear picture of what is happening.

Change to verbose with this DWORD registry key:

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \Policies \System]
    VerboseStatus=1

This setting can also be configured through the Group Policy Editor:

    Windows 2003/XP/2000 - Computer Configuration -> Administrative Tools -> System and change the option "Verbose vs. normal status messages".
    Windows Vista/2008 - Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System and change the option "Verbose vs normal status messages"

If the following DWORD registry entry is set to 1 then no messages is shown at all:

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \Policies \System]
    DisableStatusMessages = 0 (0 = Show messages, 1 = Hide messages)

More Info MS KB Q316243
More Info MS KB Q325376

[barney]

Thanks, Curt,

It's always nice to have sources  .

[40hz]

+1!

Curt never ceases to amaze me! Thx Curt. 

[J-Mac]

Curt,

Are the status messages logged in the Event Viewer or anywhere? Or just onscreen during boot up?

I remember trying to use Bootvis by Microsoft with XP but that never worked with dual core machines unfortunately.

Thanks!

Jim

[40hz]

I usually don't mention commercially licensed programs, but there is a decent BootVis-type app that works under Windows 7. It's called WinBootInfo. It's not free (about $15) but it does come with a fully functional 30-day evaluation. So if it's not something you'll be needing on an ongoing basis, it won't cost you anything to use it.

We license it for most Win servers we're responsible for.

Note: the site doesn't specifically mention Windows 7, but the publisher (GreenVantage LLC) has stated it works with it. I use v1.02 on my personal Windows machine (64-bit version) so I can confirm it does.


--------------
Disclaimer: I have no affiliation whatsoever with GreenVantage. I'm just one of their customers.

[J-Mac]

Thanks 40hz. I don’t need it as much now - my boot times aren't as troublesome as they were in XP here. However I have had a problem which causes me to immediately log out as soon as Windows starts and then log back in under the same user. If I don’t I can't use my keyboard or mouse, most startup apps don’t run, and most desktop icons stay blank, which makes it appear to be an explorer.exe issue. NO errors about it in the Event Viewer, which makes my faith in Windows 7 less optimistic than most. 

Sounds like it should be easy enough to diagnose and fix but it hasn’t been! I've found a lot of others with the exact same symptoms, and I have reinstalled the OS twice and still it occurs. Pretty sure it must be hardware related - I might as well blame it on Asus or nVidia since most of the problems on this machine eventually trace back to one or the other. But... if I log-out / log-in all is well, so I have lived like that since Windows 7 was released. Se la vie!

Thanks again!

Jim

[MerleOne]

Maybe you could try the new StartupDelayer, from R2 studios, where you can delay one application after another and see when the issue arises.  But you would need a reboot for each tested configuration.

[40hz]

You could also run Windows Startup with the bootlogging option enabled. If there's a problem, the generated log file may allow you to identify what is causing the problem. Usually it's a driver issue when it does catch something.

Using a startup delayer type utility can also help. I had similar problems on a machine that was using COMODO's firewall. It's startup kept banging into something else's startup. Once I set COMODO to delay loading for two minutes the problem went away.

I eventually traced the problem to an ATI graphics utility which I removed since I never used it.

Luck!

[J-Mac]

Thanks all. I have used Chameleon Startup Manager for a few years and do have most of my startup programs staggered. Also whiel I haven't used the bootlogger I have tried to catch something with Process Monitor but nothing shows up that suggests why it does this. Lots of little stuff but a lot of other folks see the same little stuff without any noticeable problems. I still tend to think it is an nVidia thing, since they have been the cause of so many headaches with this machine.

Thanks!

Jim