Group Policy Log Viewer for Server 2008

Microsoft provide a tool for analysing event log entries for group policy.
This tool is listed at for Windows Vista but works just fine on 2008 R2.

Download the tool from
Group Policy Log Viewer Download

This is a MSI installer that adds a the GPLOGVIEW.exe to your machine.

Running GPLOGVIEW.exe /?
gives a list of the command syntax and examples.

A common command is to output to a HTML file
 gplogview.exe -h -o GPEvents.html

Enable GPO logging and debugging in Server 2008

The following can be handy to troubleshoot slow logon or group policy issues.

Group Policy logon logging:

Add the following Registry KEy

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Diagnostics

GPSvcDebugLevel = 30002 (hex)

Create the following folder if it does not exist.
The log output will be placed in C:\Windows\Debug\UserMode\gpsvc.log

GP Preference tracing:

Group Policy (local or main) 

Computer Configuration | Policies | Admin Templates | System | Group Policy | Logging and Tracing

User.log in C:\ProgramData\GroupPolicy\Preference\Trace

The GP logon login and preference tracing may provide clues - i.e. can see where the delay is.

We had a slow logon problem and found that the Group Policy preference shortcuts was where the delay was.

These keys could be worth trying:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

DelayedDesktopSwitchTimeout = 5

The “Preparing your Desktop” bit now whizzes by.

But you then may get a black screen for quite a while before actually seeing the desktop.  Apparently this can be fixed by setting the aboveDelayedDesktopSwitchTimeout registry setting to 45.  I tried that and things seem better! 

Windows 7 and Server 2008 Group Policy Settings overview

I have chopped the Microsoft Group policy spreadsheet up so it displays as a webpage.
This makes a handy resource for making a quick search for the location of a group policy setting.

Thinworld Group Policy Settings web display