Windows Vista as well as the predecessor Windows operating systems – comes with a complex infrastructure designed to log all the activity of the platform. The tool associated with logs in Windows Vista is Event Viewer. Users will be able to access this utility by entering Event Viewer in the Search box under the Start menu. Then simply right click the highlighted result and choose Run as Administrator from the contextual menu that pops up. Event viewer will keep track of a range of events including items related to Administrative tasks, Applications, Security, Setup, System, Applications and Services Logs and Forwarded Events.

The simplest way to deal with event files in Windows Vista is to have them saved as under the new Event Log file format - .evtx. Vista users will notice that the operating system also offers the possibility to convert exported Event Log (.evt) files from Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to the .evtx format. The conversion can be done via the Event Viewer MMC, just make your way to the saved even, right click it and choose Save As. (more…)

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