Policy
Turn on PowerShell Transcription
Microsoft Windows
Policy overview
Key metadata and intent for this policy.
Supported OS tags: Windows7, WindowsServer2008
This policy setting lets you capture the input and output of Windows PowerShell commands into text-based transcripts. If you enable this policy setting, Windows PowerShell will enable transcripting for Windows PowerShell, the Windows PowerShell ISE, and any other applications that leverage the Windows PowerShell engine. By default, Windows PowerShell will record transcript output to each users' My Documents directory, with a file name that includes 'PowerShell_transcript', along with the computer name and time started. Enabling this policy is equivalent to calling the Start-Transcript cmdlet on each Windows PowerShell session. If you disable this policy setting, transcripting of PowerShell-based applications is disabled by default, although transcripting can still be enabled through the Start-Transcript cmdlet. If you use the OutputDirectory setting to enable transcript logging to a shared location, be sure to limit access to that directory to prevent users from viewing the transcripts of other users or computers. Note: This policy setting exists under both Computer Configuration and User Configuration in the Group Policy Editor. The Computer Configuration policy setting takes precedence over the User Configuration policy setting.
Registry values
How enabled and disabled states update the registry.
| Scope | Registry location | Type | Enabled value | Disabled value | Copy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Path Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\Transcription Value name EnableTranscripting | REG_DWORD | HKLM 1 HKCU 1 | HKLM 0 HKCU 0 |
Policy elements
Inputs and configuration options exposed by this policy.
| Scope | Element | Type | Registry mapping | Constraints & behavior | Copy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Include invocation headers: ID EnableInvocationHeader | boolean | Path Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\Transcription Value name EnableInvocationHeader Type REG_DWORD | Options: true (), false () True: None · False: None | ||
Transcript output directory ID OutputDirectory | text | Path Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\Transcription Value name OutputDirectory Type REG_SZ | None |