Event Viewer is a tool that gathers information about hardware, software, system problems, and security events. An event is any notable occurence that happens in an application or within the operating system itself. Each time an event occurs, Windows 2000 records its occurrence in a log.

To access Event Viewer, from Control Panel, open Administrative Tools, and then Event Viewer. The Event Viewer displays one of four types of events:

• Error: Indicates a significant problem, such as loss of data or functionality.
  
  
• Warning: May indicate a possible future problem.
  
  
• Information: Describes the successful operation of an application, driver, or service.
  
  
• Auditing: Indicates whether an attempt to access an audited resources was a success or a failure.
  
  

Event Viewer then records the occurrences of these types of events in event logs. Different types of logs are created depending on the additional components installed on the system. Some common event logs are the application log, the system log, and the security log.

• Application:
  
  
  The application log contains events logged by applications. The application log records Error, Warning, and Information events.
  
  
  
• Security:
  
  
  The security log records Auditing events, including valid and invalid logon attempts, as well as events related to resource use, such as creating, opening, or deleting files.
  
  
  
• System:
  
  
  The system log contains events logged by Windows 2000 system components. The system log records Error, Warning, and Information events.
  
  
  
• Directory Service:
  
  
  Stores messages and events related to the functioning of the Active Directory. For example, details related to replication might be found here.
  
  
  
• DNS Server:
  
  
  Contains details about the operations of the DNS servie. This log is useful for troubleshooting replication or name resolution problems.