Many Windows administrators and developers rely on Sysinternals' ADInsight for real-time LDAP/Active Directory call monitoring, but several factors can cause it to fail silently:

• Windows API changes in newer OS versions (especially post-Windows 10 1809)
• Conflicts with ETW (Event Tracing for Windows) providers
• Group Policy restrictions on diagnostic tracing

1. Microsoft's XPerf with AD Tracing Profile

For low-level tracing that ADInsight would normally handle:

xperf -start ADSession -on Microsoft-Windows-LDAP-Client -f adtrace.etl -buffersize 1024
xperf -stop ADSession
xperf -merge adtrace.etl merged.etl
xperf merged.etl

2. PowerShell LDAP Trace Module

Create a custom tracer:

# Requires PS 5.1+
Import-Module ActiveDirectory

Register-EngineEvent -SourceIdentifier AD.Trace -Action {
    param($event)
    Write-Host "[$(Get-Date)] $($event.MessageData.Operation) $($event.MessageData.Path)"
}

$ldapWatcher = [System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher]::new()
$ldapWatcher.Filter = "(objectClass=*)"
$ldapWatcher.PropertiesToLoad.AddRange(@("distinguishedName","objectClass"))
$ldapWatcher.FindAll() | Out-Null

3. Process Monitor with LDAP Filters

Configure ProcMon to capture only AD-relevant calls:

1. Launch procmon.exe as Administrator
2. Filter → Drop Filter → Operation is "TCP Receive"
3. Include Process Name = "lsass.exe"
4. Include Path contains "LDAP"

For production environments:

• Microsoft ATA (Advanced Threat Analytics): Provides deep LDAP traffic analysis
• SolarWinds LDAP Monitor: Commercial solution with alerting
• Wireshark with LDAP dissection: Filter with ldap display filter

If you must use ADInsight, try these troubleshooting steps:

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Tracing" /v EnableFileTracing /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Tracing" /v EnableConsoleTracing /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Then restart the tool with administrative privileges.

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When ADInsight fails to capture Active Directory events despite running as Administrator and multiple troubleshooting attempts, it typically indicates deeper compatibility issues. The tool's known instability stems from its dependency on:

• Microsoft Detours API hooking mechanism
• LSASS process memory scanning
• Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) drivers

1. Microsoft XPerf with AD Tracing Profile

Combine Windows Performance Toolkit with custom AD providers:

xperf -start "ADTrace" -on 
"Microsoft-Windows-ActiveDirectory_DomainService:0xFFFF" 
"Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing:0xFFFF"
xperf -stop "ADTrace" -d ad_trace.etl

2. Process Monitor with Advanced Filtering

Configure filters for LDAP operations:

Filter: 
Operation: RegOpenKey,RegQueryValue,CreateFile,ReadFile
Path: contains "LDAP"

3. Custom ETW Tracing with PowerShell

Capture ADSI calls using .NET Event Tracing:

$session = New-EtwTraceSession -Name "ADSI Monitor" -LogFileMode Sequential
$session.EnableProvider("Microsoft-Windows-LDAP-Client", [System.Diagnostics.Tracing.EventLevel]::Verbose)
Start-Sleep -Seconds 30
$session.Stop()

4. Wireshark LDAP Protocol Analysis

Configure display filters for real-time monitoring:

ldap || kerberos || gssapi || ntlmssp

5. OpenLDAP's lloadd

For Linux-based AD monitoring through proxy:

dn: cn=config
changetype: modify
add: olcPlugin
olcPlugin: {0}load /path/to/auditlog.so

6. Softerra LDAP Administrator

Provides real-time LDAP query logging through its debug console.

If you must use ADInsight, try these registry tweaks:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\lsass.exe]
"DisableExceptionChainValidation"=dword:00000001