One of the most useful features to assist in troubleshooting a Windows computer is the event log. Almost everything that Windows does behind the scenes, including any potential problem that it identifies, gets recorded in the event log. It's not unusual for the log to grow by a few thousand entries every day. But although the logging facility is comprehensive, the range of tools which Microsoft provides in order to search and analyze the event it is not.

Basically, you're limited to something called the Event Viewer. You can browse by event type or by date/time, but the information is merely the raw data and it's down to you to make sense of it.

If you want a more powerful tool for analyzing your event log, then there are various products available. The good ones are invariably commercial and expensive. But thankfully, the market leader offers an option which is free for personal use, sufficiently powerful, and fun to explore.  Read More