Many applications record errors and events in various proprietary error logs. These proprietary error logs have different formats and display different user interfaces. Moreover, you cannot merge the data to provide a complete report. Therefore, you need to check a variety of sources to diagnose problems. Event logging in Microsoft® Windows NT® provides a standard, centralized way for applications (and the operating system) to record important software and hardware events. The event-logging service stores events from various sources in a single collection called an event log. Windows NT also supplies Event Viewer for viewing the logs, and a programming interface for examining the logs.
This overview contains the following topics, which discuss the programming interface for writing to and examining event logs.