How to Backup or Export Windows Event Log

Learn the detailed steps to export Windows log

4 min. read

Updated onOctober 6, 2023

updated onOctober 6, 2023

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Key notes

If you are an advanced Windows user and want to know full details about a variety of events, including account logon and logoff activity, system information, warnings, etc., then you need to view theMicrosoft Windows Event Viewerlogs.

In this guide, we will explain to you all the steps that you need to understand how you can take a Windows event log backup and export the Windows event log on your PC. Let us check out the guide.

What is Microsoft Windows Event Viewer? With the Microsoft Windows Event Viewer, you can view a log of all application and system messages. These messages will include error information, warnings, account login/logoff information, etc.

How do I open Windows Event Viewer? Just type event viewer in the Search bar and select the Event Viewer app from the results.

You may also open Event Viewer by right-clicking theWindowsbutton and selecting it from the context menu, or by typingeventvwr.mscinto aRunconsole and pressEnter.

This works on all the latest and previous versions of Windows OS. Let us now learn how you can perform Windows Event Viewer backup and export functions in the below segment.

How do I export or backup Windows Event log?

1. Export logs to CSV file

You can open this CSV file with Microsoft Excel and then troubleshoot the issues based on the information that you obtained from the Windows Event viewer.

2. Export as EVTX

When you perform the above steps, it will backup the Windows Event Viewer log file in .evtx format and also create a folder called LocaleMetaData in the destination where you have saved the log file.

How can I open the CSV file in MS Excel and sort events by ID?

Following the above steps, you can easily back up and view the Windows Event Viewer log file sorted in the order of Event IDs. This will help you locate the problem that you are looking to troubleshoot quicker.

That is it from us in this guide. We have a guide that lists down some of thebest Windows Event Log Viewer toolsand also detailed steps on how you can use them.

Several users have asked about what isEvent ID 4656: A Handle to an Object was Requestederror and how they fix it. You can learn about it in our dedicated guide.

Moreover, you can also check out the solutions to quickly resolveEvent ID 4103. For more information onEvent ID 800, we would suggest you apply the fixes mentioned in our guide to resolve it at your end.

Feel free to drop a comment below and let us know if you understood without any issues regarding how to backup the Windows log event on your computer.

How to Backup or Export Windows Event Log#

How do I export or backup Windows Event log?#

1. Export logs to CSV file#

2. Export as EVTX#

How can I open the CSV file in MS Excel and sort events by ID?#

How to Backup or Export Windows Event Log

How do I export or backup Windows Event log?

1. Export logs to CSV file

2. Export as EVTX

How can I open the CSV file in MS Excel and sort events by ID?