Windows Event Log Viewer: 5 Best Tools & How to Use
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Key notes
- If you want to know what's wrong with your PC, you need to check the event history with the best Windows event log viewers.
- The most convenient app is already built into your OS so you can use that first.
- For more details and features, you should go for a more advanced tool like Event Log Explorer.
- A cloud-based tool from Sentinel Agent can also monitor the PC performance.
Event log viewers are programs that track important events on your computer. Every app or program that runs on your computer leaves a trace in the event log, and before apps stop or crash, they post a notification.
Every single event or change made on your computer is registered in the event log.
In other words, an event viewer is a program that scans long text log files, groups them and adds a simpler interface on huge amounts of technical data.
In case your computer doesn’t work properly, event viewers are essential because they offer you important information on the source of the problem.
Windows 10 comes with its own built-in event log viewer that offers users an in-depth image of the processes taking place on their computers.
If you want to analyze particular event information, you can also use third-party event viewers.
How to use Windows Event Viewer
- Type event in the Windows search tab and select Run as administrator to start Event Viewer with full privileges.
- Next, click on the category of the event from the left pane, and the list of events will appear on the upper-middle pane.
- When you click on an event, you will get the details on the bottom-middle pane; double-clicking it will open the details in a separate window.
- In our example, we are checking out a kernel warning that a core of the processor was limited by system firmware. Hitting the Copy button with copy all the information in the clipboard to paste it in a document or an Excel file.
- You can also use all the options from the right pane to gain more information. For instance, you can save the event as a .evtx file by clicking on Save Selected Events.
Windows Event Viewer is great to get basic information on events on your system and it can be used easily for saving important information.
What are the best Windows 10 event log viewers?
Windows Event Log Viewer
Many Windows users rely on this built-in tool to check the events that take place on their computers.
This tool has two major advantages: it’s already installed on your computer and has a very intuitive interface. You can launch the Windows Event Log Viewer by typing event viewer in the search bar.
The tool’s screen is divided into three parts: the event categories are located in the left-hand sidebar, details about log events can be found in the middle section of the window, while the available actions are listed in the right-hand sidebar.
In the left pane, you can choose from all the event types. The top one is aimed for the administrative event.
Clicking on each one on the center pane, will provide you with general or detailed information about the event.
The next two categories from the left are the Windows logs and the Applications and services logs. The first refers, of course, exclusively to the OS and its built-in apps.
The action pane from the right offers you all the possible options to interact with the logs but the most important are the save and export options that are paramount to sharing the reports to specialized help.
The Windows Event Log Viewer offers reports about five log events:
- Application events: reports about app/ program issues
- Security events: reports about the results of security actions
- Setup events: mainly refers to domain controllers
- System events: these are reports sent by Windows system files about the issues encountered and are usually self-healing issues
- Forwarded events: these are reports sent by other computers
Event Log Explorer
This event log viewer allows users to view, analyze and monitor events recorded in Windows’ event logs.
Event Log Explorer is better than Microsoft’s own Event Log Viewer, bringing more features to the table.
Thanks to this tool, users can analyze various event logs: security, application, system, setup, directory service, DNS, and more.
The tool can even access Windows event logs and event log files from remote servers and you can view more of them at one time in separate windows or in one big, merged window.
If it’s relevant, you can choose between legacy Windows NT API and modern Windows Event Log API to access the logs.
Event Log Explorer reads events into its own temporary storage for faster log analysis. Of course, you can choose between memory and disk storage.
The software also allows you to consolidate events in one single view to review it as a solid log. You can even save it as an EVT file.
Other features include:
- Instant access to event logs – Event Log Explorer works with both local and remote event logs, as well as with event log files in EVT and EVTX format
- Efficient filtering – filter by event descriptions using regular expressions, filter by security event parameters, or you can build complex filters and organize them into a filter library
- Export events and report generator – export and print events
MyEventViewer
MyEventViewer is another interesting, simpler alternative to Microsoft’s Event Log Viewer. This tool lets you watch multiple event logs in one list, together with event description and data.
Also, the event description and data are displayed in the main window, instead of opening a new one.
No installation process or additional DLL files are required to run this software, all you need to do is to launch the executable file.
With MyEventViewer, you can select multiple event items and save them to HTML/Text/XML files. Of course, there’s also the option to copy them to the clipboard and paste them afterward into and Excel document.
MyEventViewer’s mai window is composed by 2 panes. The top one shows you the list of all events and when you select one you will see the description in the lower pane window.
You can remove/add the logs that you want to view from the main window by using the Logs menu.
The software also has command-line commands for advanced users. The admins will be happy to use them for a more efficient process that implicates more computers.
Other features include:
- It packs only the main features and options you need to monitor your system
- The simplistic interface is very user-friendly
- You can view the events from a remote computer
- Certain events can be hidden from specific users
- Events can be filtered using a series of criteria
FullEventLogView
This is NirSoft’s most recent event viewer, it was released on September 9, 2016. FullEventLogView is a simple tool for Windows 10 that displays the details of all Windows events in a table.
FullEventLogView is the upgraded version of MyEventViewer:
MyEventViewer is a very old tool […]. The old programming interface still works even on Windows 10, but it cannot access the new event logs added on Windows Vista and newer systems. […]
FullEventLogView uses the new programming interface, so it displays all events.
The tool allows you not only to view the events of your local computer but also the events of a remote computer on your network, and events stored in .evtx files.
It also allows you to export the events list to text/csv/tab-delimited/html/xml file from the GUI and from the command-line.
This program works on any version of Windows, including Windows Vista and up to Windows 10. Both 32-bit and 64-bit systems are supported.
SentinelAgent
SentinelAgent is a cloud-based Windows monitoring software. This tool registers, stores and analyzes event logs, performance metrics, and system inventory from any Windows PCs, tablets, and servers on your network.
SentinelAgent is available for home users, small and medium businesses and enterprise clients.
The service for home users notifies you when your devices are having problems, and help you identify the source of the problem as well.
No configuration is necessary, as the tool is already pre-configured to monitor specific computer performance elements and alert you by email as soon as issues are detected.
If you opt for a professional version, you will need to install the agent on system you want to monitor.
Then, if those devices start having problems, you will get notified. You will also be able to access a log with 7 days of system data that is stored outside the PC that is acting up to get to the root of the issue.
Other features include:
- 7 Days Data Retention (Rotating)
- Monitor All Your Machines From 1 Account
- Pre-Configured Notifications for CPU/Disk Errors
- Pre-Configured Notifications for Event ID Errors
- No Ads. No Bloat
- Network Installation Ready
- 2.7 Mb Disk Space Required
We hope this top Windows 10 event log viewers help you to choose the tool that best suits your monitoring needs.
If you’re interested in other options, you can also check our log monitoring software list for experienced admins.
Have you already tried out some of the event viewers listed in this article? Tell us more about your experience in the comment section below.
