NTLMv2 in Windows 2008 active or not?

Question

I have a Windows 2008 R2 member server which has no settings configured for NTLM.
When I open the local group policy I see that the setting "Network security: LAN Manager authentication level" is "Not Defined"
If I take a look at the registry location: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
I see that there is no LMCompatibilitysetting present.
What I want to know is how can I see if there are any NTLM settings active? Microsoft says that in Windows 2008 (r2) by default "NTLMv2 Response only" is active (LMcompatibilitysetting 3)
If we look in Windows 2012 r2 we see also that this settings is configured as "Not Defined"

Answer 1

Ok, but why doesn't it show in the register: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
It only adds an entry when I make a choice for NTLM version in the local group policy
If I do that it adds: LMCompatibilitysetting
How can we see that it actually uses NTLMv2?
Windows, and probably almost all modern computer software too, has defaults coded within the programs.
These defaults apply even if the settings to set alternate/optional values don't exist. This is a very common practise in modern programming.
In this example, LSA and the related lsass.exe will operate in default mode when the registry setting is absent.
There is no value (to the program) to have the default setting recorded in registry - the program doesn't need that, and, to have every default setting recorded in registry is wasteful (increases the size of the registry while delivering no benefit to the
program).
It's a separate matter to determine/confirm the actual NTLM methods in use. To do that, you probably need to perform network traffic capture and analysis (e.g. with MSFT NetMon, or Wireshark [formerly known as Ethereal] and examine the packets captured)
Don
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