SOLVED: How To Enable Verbose Highly Detailed Messages During Start Up or Shutdown Using Group Policy

If you want to see what your PC is doing during startup or shutdown you can set Windows to VERBOSE MODE.  This can be accomplished in one of two ways:

1. Registry Entry on the PC:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\
   CurrentVersion\Policies\System
   “VerboseStatus”=dword:00000001
   .
2. Group Policy:
   Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System>  DISPLAY HIGHLY DETAILED MESSAGES
   .
   Note that previous to the Windows 8 ADMX Group Policy templates, this Group Policy setting in question was to be named “Verbose vs normal status messages”
   .
   Microsoft’s Help Text is quite clear:

This policy setting directs the system to display highly detailed status messages.

This policy setting is designed for advanced users who require this information.

If you enable this policy setting, the system displays status messages that reflect each step in the process of starting, shutting down, logging on, or logging off the system.

If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, only the default status messages are displayed to the user during these processes.

Note: This policy setting is ignored if the “”Remove Boot/Shutdown/Logon/Logoff status messages”” policy setting is enabled.

Enjoy!