When an error occurs, the system administrator or support representative must determine what caused the error, attempt to recover any lost data, and prevent the error from recurring. It is helpful if applications, the operating system, and other system services record important events such as low-memory conditions or excessive attempts to access a disk. Then the system administrator can use the event log to help determine what conditions caused the error and the context in which it occurred. By periodically viewing the event log, the system administrator may be able to identify problems (such as a failing hard drive) before they cause damage.
The Event Logging API is meant for applications that run on the Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, or Windows 2000 operating system. For Windows Vista, the event logging infrastructure was redesigned. Applications that run on the Windows Vista and later operating system should now use Windows Event Log to log events.
This overview contains the following topics, which discuss the programming interface for writing and consuming events using Event Logging.
Note Applications that publishe events that are larger than 64 kilobytes on a Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, or Windows 2000 computer will not be able to publish events on a Windows Vista and later computer.
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Build date: 1/21/2010