VPS - Enable Windows boot logs

Objective

Windows boot logs allow you to identify the drivers and services loaded during system startup.
They are particularly useful for diagnosing boot issues, blue screens, or system freezes.

This guide explains how to enable Windows boot logs on a server to help diagnose and troubleshoot VPS issues.

Requirements

• An active VPS offer in your OVHcloud Control Panel.

Instructions

Enabling Windows boot logs

To enable boot logs, follow the steps below:

1. Connect to the server

2. Open the Run utility

3. Open `msconfig`

4. Enable logs

Connect to your server via a remote desktop or a KVM session.

Open the Windows Start menu and click Run.

Type msconfig and click OK.

In the new window, enable the log option next to Boot log. Then click OK.

At the next server startup, the logs will be saved in a .txt file. The file path is: C:\Windows\ntbtlog.txt.

To access the log file in rescue mode, follow the instructions in the guide "Enable and use rescue mode on a VPS".

Go further

Change the administrator password on a Windows server

VPS FAQ

SSH introduction

Secure a VPS

How to recover access to the server if you lose the user password

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