Search for specific events

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

To search for specific events

Open Event Viewer.
In the console tree, click the log you want to search.
On the View menu, click Find.
Under Event types, select the types of events you want to find.
In Event source, Category, Event ID, User, Computer, or Description, specify additional information about the event or events you want to find.
Click Find Next.

Notes

Performing this task does not require you to have administrative credentials. Therefore, as a security best practice, consider performing this task as a user without administrative credentials. However, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the target computer to open the Security log, or any log when targeting a remote computer.
To open Event Viewer, click Start, click Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Event Viewer.
In Description, you can type any text that matches a portion of an event record description.
To restore the default search criteria, click Restore Defaults before clicking Find Next.
Your search parameters remain in Find throughout the current session. The default settings are restored the next time you start Event Viewer.
If you are looking for groups of events instead of a small number of individual events, you can also filter the log. For more information, see "Filter events" in Related Topics.

Your server might function differently based on the version and edition of the operating system that is installed, your account permissions, and your menu settings. For more information, see Viewing Help on the Web.