diff --git a/src/apps/deskflow-daemon/deskflow-daemon.cpp b/src/apps/deskflow-daemon/deskflow-daemon.cpp
index d73a60d88..b6f34008c 100644
--- a/src/apps/deskflow-daemon/deskflow-daemon.cpp
+++ b/src/apps/deskflow-daemon/deskflow-daemon.cpp
@@ -69,8 +69,10 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
     daemon.moveToThread(&daemonThread);
 
     QObject::connect(&daemonThread, &QThread::started, [&daemon, &daemonThread]() {
+      LOG_DEBUG("daemon thread started");
       daemon.run();
       daemonThread.quit();
+      LOG_DEBUG("daemon thread finished");
     });
     QObject::connect(&daemonThread, &QThread::finished, &app, &QCoreApplication::quit);
 
diff --git a/src/lib/arch/win32/ArchDaemonWindows.cpp b/src/lib/arch/win32/ArchDaemonWindows.cpp
index f7bed713b..733d36735 100644
--- a/src/lib/arch/win32/ArchDaemonWindows.cpp
+++ b/src/lib/arch/win32/ArchDaemonWindows.cpp
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
  */
 
 #include "arch/win32/ArchDaemonWindows.h"
+
 #include "arch/Arch.h"
 #include "arch/win32/ArchMiscWindows.h"
 #include "arch/win32/XArchWindows.h"
@@ -59,6 +60,8 @@ void ArchDaemonWindows::installDaemon(
     const char *name, const char *description, const char *pathname, const char *commandLine, const char *dependencies
 )
 {
+  LOG_DEBUG("installing windows service: %s", name);
+
   // open service manager
   SC_HANDLE mgr = OpenSCManager(NULL, NULL, GENERIC_WRITE);
   if (mgr == NULL) {
@@ -125,6 +128,8 @@ void ArchDaemonWindows::installDaemon(
 
 void ArchDaemonWindows::uninstallDaemon(const char *name)
 {
+  LOG_DEBUG("uninstalling windows service: %s", name);
+
   // remove parameters for this service.  ignore failures.
   HKEY key = openNTServicesKey();
   key = ArchMiscWindows::openKey(key, name);
diff --git a/src/lib/deskflow/DaemonApp.cpp b/src/lib/deskflow/DaemonApp.cpp
index 8b506177d..f8bf7aa37 100644
--- a/src/lib/deskflow/DaemonApp.cpp
+++ b/src/lib/deskflow/DaemonApp.cpp
@@ -80,17 +80,17 @@ DaemonApp::~DaemonApp() = default;
 void DaemonApp::run()
 {
   if (m_foreground) {
-    LOG_INFO("starting daemon in foreground");
+    LOG_DEBUG("starting daemon in foreground");
 
     // run process in foreground instead of daemonizing.
     // useful for debugging.
     mainLoop(m_foreground);
   } else {
 #if SYSAPI_WIN32
-    LOG_INFO("daemonizing windows service");
+    LOG_DEBUG("daemonizing windows service");
     ARCH->daemonize(kAppName, winMainLoopStatic);
 #elif SYSAPI_UNIX
-    LOG_INFO("daemonizing unix service");
+    LOG_DEBUG("daemonizing unix service");
     ARCH->daemonize(kAppName, unixMainLoopStatic);
 #endif
   }
@@ -253,9 +253,12 @@ void DaemonApp::mainLoop(bool foreground)
     m_watchdog->startAsync();
 #endif
 
+    LOG_INFO("daemon is running");
     m_events->loop();
+    LOG_INFO("daemon is stopping");
 
 #if SYSAPI_WIN32
+    LOG_DEBUG("stopping process watchdog");
     m_watchdog->stop();
 #endif
 
diff --git a/src/lib/platform/MSWindowsProcess.cpp b/src/lib/platform/MSWindowsProcess.cpp
index e1e0ddc9a..bacdeca77 100644
--- a/src/lib/platform/MSWindowsProcess.cpp
+++ b/src/lib/platform/MSWindowsProcess.cpp
@@ -127,12 +127,16 @@ void MSWindowsProcess::shutdown(HANDLE handle, DWORD pid, int timeout)
     SetEvent(hCloseEvent);
     CloseHandle(hCloseEvent);
   } else {
-    LOG((CLOG_WARN "could not send close event to process"));
+    LOG_WARN("could not send close event to process");
     throw XArch(new XArchEvalWindows);
   }
 
   DWORD exitCode;
-  GetExitCodeProcess(handle, &exitCode);
+  if (!GetExitCodeProcess(handle, &exitCode)) {
+    LOG_ERR("failed to get process exit code for process %d", pid);
+    throw XArch(new XArchEvalWindows);
+  }
+
   if (exitCode != STILL_ACTIVE) {
     LOG_DEBUG("process %d is already shutdown", pid);
     return;
diff --git a/src/lib/platform/MSWindowsWatchdog.cpp b/src/lib/platform/MSWindowsWatchdog.cpp
index bb04e13d4..6277e8c10 100644
--- a/src/lib/platform/MSWindowsWatchdog.cpp
+++ b/src/lib/platform/MSWindowsWatchdog.cpp
@@ -93,10 +93,14 @@ void MSWindowsWatchdog::stop()
 {
   m_monitoring = false;
 
-  m_thread->wait(5);
+  if (!m_thread->wait(5)) {
+    LOG((CLOG_WARN "could not stop main thread"));
+  }
   delete m_thread;
 
-  m_outputThread->wait(5);
+  if (!m_outputThread->wait(5)) {
+    LOG((CLOG_WARN "could not stop output thread"));
+  }
   delete m_outputThread;
 }
 
@@ -161,7 +165,7 @@ MSWindowsWatchdog::getUserToken(LPSECURITY_ATTRIBUTES security, bool elevatedTok
 
 void MSWindowsWatchdog::mainLoop(void *)
 {
-  LOG_DEBUG("starting main loop");
+  LOG_DEBUG("starting watchdog main loop");
 
   shutdownExistingProcesses();
 
@@ -277,7 +281,7 @@ void MSWindowsWatchdog::mainLoop(void *)
     m_processStarted = false;
   }
 
-  LOG((CLOG_DEBUG "watchdog main thread finished"));
+  LOG((CLOG_DEBUG "watchdog main loop finished"));
 }
 
 bool MSWindowsWatchdog::isProcessRunning()
@@ -347,8 +351,10 @@ void MSWindowsWatchdog::startProcess()
     LOG((CLOG_ERR "exit code: %d", exitCode));
     throw XArch(new XArchEvalWindows);
   } else {
-    // wait for program to fail.
+    // Wait for program to fail. This needs to be 1 second, as the process may take some time to fail.
+    LOG_DEBUG("waiting for process start result");
     ARCH->sleep(1);
+
     if (!isProcessRunning()) {
       m_process.reset();
       throw XMSWindowsWatchdogError("process immediately stopped");