Windows 10 Event Viewer is a window into your computer’s soul. It is usually the first port of call when troubleshooting an issue as it can offer an insight into what is going on. Event Viewer can also be confusing and misleading too so it isn’t all plain sailing. However, if you would like to know how to use Windows 10 Event Viewer for troubleshooting, read on.
1. Type or paste ‘event’ into the Search Windows box.
2. Open Event Viewer and allow it to load.
You should see three panes. On the left are the views and log types. The middle pane displays the logs themselves and the right pane offers access to a range of actions.
Important note: A completely error free computer does not exist and it is not necessary to troubleshoot every error or warning you see.
Event types
There are five main event types and they are listed in the left pane. Only two are relevant to the home computer, Application and System. The others are mainly for enterprise setups or networks.
• Application events – Program reported events
• Security events – Security audit events
• Setup events – Domain control events
• System events – Windows system file events
• Forwarded events – Events forwarded from networks devices
There are three main event notifications, error, warning and information.
• Error – An issue that needs looking at
• Warning – An issue that isn’t a problem but might become one
• Information – An event to tell you something has happened
Using Windows 10 Event Viewer
Using Event Viewer is simple enough but expect to hunt down information on the event on the internet. While Event Viewer gives you an idea of what is causing the error it is notoriously bad at explaining the error and what to do about it. So a typical troubleshooting task using Event Viewer would go something like this:
1. Identify the error by highlighting an application or system event.
2. Highlight the error or warning in the middle pane.
3. Read the text in the lower half of the middle pane.
4. Put the Event ID or error text into a search engine or search Tom’s Hardware.
5. Perform whatever steps required to address the error.
6. Rinse and repeat for all pertinent errors.
You might also like:
How to install the Linux Bash Shell in Windows 10
How to Enable or Disable Built-in Elevated Administrator Account in Windows 10
How to set up and join a Workgroup in Windows 10
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