EventViewer

The Event Viewer is a tool that displays detailed information about significant events on your computer. Examples of these are programs that don't start as expected and automatically downloaded updates. Event Viewer is especially useful for troubleshooting problems with Windows and errors with other programs.

You must be logged on as an administrator in order to use the Event Viewer. If you aren't logged on as an administrator, you can change only settings that apply to your user account, and many event logs may not be accessible.

 

Event logs are special files that record significant events on your computer, such as when a user opens a program or when a program encounters an error.Whenever these sorts of events occur, Windows records the event in anevent log and you can analyze these events by using Event Viewer.
Advanced users may find the details contained in the event logs useful when troubleshooting problems with Windows and other programs.

 

Event Viewer tracks information in several different logs. Windows Logs include:

• Application or program events. Events are classified as error, warning, or information, depending on the seriousness of the event. An error is a significant problem, such as loss of data. A warning is an event that isn't necessarily significant, but might indicate a possible future problem. An information event describes the successful operation of a program, driver, or service.
• Security-related events. These events are called audits and are described as successful or failed depending on the event, such as whether a user trying to log on to Windows was successful.
• Setup events. Computers that are configured as domain controllers will have additional logs displayed here.
• System events. System events are logged by Windows and Windows system services, and are classified as error, warning, or information.
• Forwarded events. These events are forwarded to this log by other computers.

Application and Services Logs differ. These consist of separate logs about the programs that run on your computer, as well as more detailed logs that concern specific Windows services.

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