LAB 34

Windows Event Viewer & Task Scheduler

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What Is the Windows Event Viewer?

The Windows Event Viewer shows a log of application and system messages –
errors, information messages, and warnings. Scammers have used the Event
Viewer to deceive people – event a properly functioning system will have
error messages here.

In one infamous scam, a person claiming to be from Microsoft phones

someone up and instructs them to open the Event Viewer. The person is sure
to see error messages here, and the scammer will ask for the person’s credit
card number to fix them.

As a rule of thumb, you can generally ignore all of the errors and warnings
that appear in the Event Viewer – assuming your computer is working
properly.

Launching the Event Viewer

To launch the Event Viewer, just type Event Viewer into your Start menu and
press Enter. You can also launch the Event Viewer from the Administrative
Tools folder.

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Events are placed in different categories. For example, the Application log
contains a log of application events and the System log contains a log of
Windows system events.

Don’t Panic!

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You’re sure to see some errors and warnings in the Event Viewer, even if your
computer is working fine.

The Event Viewer is designed to help system administrators keep tabs on their
computers and troubleshoot problems. If there isn’t a problem with your
computer, the errors in here are unlikely to be important. For example, you’ll
often see errors that indicate a program crashed at a specific time, which
may have been weeks ago.

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Even warnings are often unimportant to the average user. If you’re trying to
troubleshoot a problem with your server, these warnings may be helpful. If
you’re not, they’re not particularly useful.

In theory, other applications are also supposed to log events to these logs.
However, many applications don’t offer very useful event information.

Uses for the Event Viewer

At this point, you’re probably wondering why you should care about the
Event Viewer. The Event Viewer can actually be helpful if you’re having a
problem with your computer – for example, if your computer is blue-screening
or randomly rebooting, the Event Viewer may provide more information
about the cause. For example, an error event in the System log section may
inform you which hardware driver crashed, which can help you pin down a
buggy driver or a faulty hardware component. Just look for the error message
associated with the time your computer froze or restarted – an error message
about a computer freeze will be marked Critical.

You can also look up specific event IDs online – if you’re having a problem,
they may help you find more information.

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There are other cool uses for the Event Viewer, too. For example, Windows
keeps track of your computer’s boot time and logs it to an event, so you can
use the Event Viewer to find your PC’s exact boot time. If you’re running a
server or other computer that should rarely shut down, you can enable
shutdown event tracking – whenever someone shuts down or restarts the
computer, they’ll have to provide a reason. You can view each shut down or
system restart and its reason in the Event Viewer.

You can also use the Event Viewer in combination with the Task Scheduler –
right-click any event and select Attach Task to This Event to associate a task
with the event. Whenever the event occurs, you can have Windows
automatically perform an action in response.

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Task Scheduler

Do you want your computer to automatically run a program, remind you

about something, or even automatically send emails? Use the Task Scheduler
included with Windows – its interface can be a bit intimidating, but it’s easy to
use.

The Task Scheduler has a wide variety of uses – anything you want your
computer to do automatically, you can configure here. For example, you

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could use the task scheduler to automatically wake your computer at a

specific time.

Creating a Basic Task

To launch the Task Scheduler, click Start, type Task Scheduler, and click the
Task Scheduler shortcut (or press Enter).

Click the Create Basic Task link at the right side of the Task Scheduler window.
This link opens an easy-to-use wizard that will walk you through the process of
creating a task. If you want more advanced options, click Create Task
instead.

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Provide a name and description for the task. These will help you remember
what the task does later.

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Select when you want the task to ―trigger,‖ or start. You can have the task run
daily, week, monthly, or only once. In addition, you can have the task run
when the computer starts or when you log on. You can also have the task
start in response to an event ID in the Windows event log.

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If you selected daily, weekly, monthly, or one time, you’ll be prompted to

specify a specific time for the event to occur.

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You can have Windows start a program, send an email, or display a message
in response to the trigger you specific earlier.

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If you want to run a program, click the Browse button and locate the
program’s .exe file on your hard disk – most programs will be located under
Program Files on your C: drive. Select a program and it will launch
automatically at your scheduled time — for example, if you always use a
certain program at 1pm, you can have Windows automatically open the
program at 1pm every weekday so you don’t forget.
You can also add optional arguments, which some programs support – for
example you can specify the /AUTO argument with CCleaner to
automatically run CCleaner on a schedule. (The exact arguments supported
will differ between programs.)

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If you want to display a message or send an email, you’ll be asked to specify

the details of the message or email you want to create.

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You’re now almost done – Windows will display the details of the task you
created. Click the Finish button and your task will be created.

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If you want to disable a task you scheduled, locate the task in the list, right-
click it, and select Disable or Delete.

Advanced Task Settings

To edit more advanced task options, right-click a task you’ve already
created and select Properties. You can also click the Create Task link in the
sidebar to create a new task in the advanced interface, skipping the wizard.

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From this interface, you can adjust quite a few settings that are hidden in the
basic wizard interface, if you really want to customize your task.

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For example, you can set other types of triggers – you can run a command
when your computer locks or unlocks, or when your computer becomes idle –
this is ideal for maintenance tasks that shouldn’t be run while someone is
using the computer.

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You can also specify multiple triggers and actions – for example, you could
have Windows display a reminder and launch an application at the same
time.

While there are a lot of options here, they won’t be necessary for most tasks
you want to create – you shouldn’t even need to open this interface if you
don’t want to.

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