Registry Settings for Script Authors

Before creating your scripts, you should review settings for a few keys in the Registry to optimize the debugging and control capabilities in your scripts. These modifications can lower the notification interval for ICS, making events fire faster, and increase the amount of information saved to the Windows NT event log. Follow these steps to review the script Registry settings:

1. Open the Registry Editor (regedit.exe) on your Exchange Server.
2. Locate the following key:

 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\ MSExchangeES\Parameters 

This key has a DWORD named Logging Level. Logging Level specifies how much information is written to the Windows NT Event Log. The value for Logging Level ranges from 0 through 5, where 0 is the default value. If Logging Level is set to 5, the maximum amount of information is logged. Adjust the Logging Level value according to your preference. Normally when I am developing scripts, I set Logging Level to 5.

3. DWORD Maximum Execution Time For Scripts In Seconds sets the maximum time a script can execute before it is terminated. When developing scripts that need to access data sources at other locations or on the network, such as databases or host systems, you might want to bump up the default value of 900 a bit so that your scripts are not prematurely terminated.
4. DWORD Maximum Size For Agent Log In KB sets the log size for your agents. The default value for this key is 32 KB. The log automatically overwrites older events as necessary when this size is exceeded.
5. Locate the following registry key:

 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\ MSExchangeIS\ParametersSystem 

If the DWORD value ICS Notification Interval does not already exist, add it and set the value to the number of seconds between each ICS notification to the Event Service. The default value is 60 seconds. However, for testing and production servers, you might want to lower this value to shorten the length of an interval between a change in the store and the Event Service being notified.