Check windows events - Adams Guide

How to open the event viewer

Click on the Start menu Then click the Run icon. Enter 'eventvwr.msc' into the box ( without the quotes ) and press enter. The event viewer window will now appear.

Events are sorted into three main categories – application, security and system. Click on a category on the tree-view to the left, and a list of events will appear in the main panel on the right. You can read overview details about the event straight from the list, but if you double-click on an entry you will get detailed properties of the event.

Pay particular attention to the icon next to the event – standard events, which probably don't represent an error (think of them like a log item, recording exactly when something happened), are represented by an information icon. Warning icons, with a yellow exclamation point, are a sign that something hasn't worked as planned – however it probably wasn't of critical importance to your system. Red crosses represent an error, and these are the events that you should look at first – these represent critical failures in some component of your system.

When you're trying to nail down a particular problem, it can be handy to have your error log open, try doing something which causes the problem, and then refresh the error log and see if any error events were logged. Examining the properties for these events can sometimes help you find out exactly what the problem is – read all the details provided carefully.

It's also worth keeping a periodic check on the security events log, even if everything seems to be functioning fine. By looking into suspicious security events, you might catch an intrusion before damage has a chance to occur.

For developers, the application log can be a handy reference tool – if you're trying to remember exactly what memory access violations occurred, this information will all be stored in the event log, including the exact time of the crash.