Accessing Additional Troubleshooting Tools

You should be aware of three additional tools that are helpful in the troubleshooting process: the Event Viewer, the Task Manager, and the Resource Monitor.

Using Event Viewer

The Event Viewer is used to inspect the event logs on a Windows computer. Windows Vista and Server 2008 added important features to the Event Viewer, which allowed it to support central logging. You can access the Event Viewer in the Administrative Tools group of the Start menu, or you can click Start, search for Event Viewer, and press Enter. Figure 13.10 shows the Event Viewer interface on Windows 7.

FIGURE 13.10 The Event Viewer application on Windows 7

Four entry levels may be shown in an event log:

Critical A failure has occurred, and the application or components could not automatically recover.