Overview of the Event Viewer

The Event Viewer is a simple tool to use. You can use the graphical user interface (GUI) applet found in the Control Panel, or you can use the Command Prompt to issue commands that can be used to examine events in the log files. The GUI version is the most common method used to review audited events. The command-line version is more useful for system administrators who are creating script files that will perform automatic system maintenance tasks.

To start the Event Viewer, first click on Start, Control Panel to display the Control Panel. In the Pick a Category area, choose Performance and Maintenance; the Performance and Maintenance window appears (see Figure 16.1).

Figure 16.1. Use the Performance and Maintenance ...

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