Using the EventLog Class in VB.net

By: Steven Holzner

The EventLog class supports access to Windows event logs from Windows services. Here is the inheritance hierarchy of this class:

Object
   MarshalByRefObject
      Component
         EventLog

You can find the more notable public class methods of EventLog in Table 3, the more notable public properties of EventLog objects in Table 4, their more notable methods in Table 5, and their more notable events in Table 6.

Table 3: Noteworthy public class (shared) methods of the *EventLog* class.
Method	Means
CreateEventSource	Enables an application to write event data to a log.
Delete	Removes a log.
DeleteEventSource	Removes an application's event source registration.
Exists	Indicates if a log exists.
GetEventLogs	Returns an array of event logs.
LogNameFromSourceName	Gets the name of the log a source is registered with.
SourceExists	Checks for a specific event source.
WriteEntry	Writes an entry in the log.

Table 4: Noteworthy public properties of *EventLog* objects.
Property	Means
EnableRaisingEvents	Gets/sets if the event log gets EntryWritten events.
Entries	Gets the contents of the log.
Log	Gets/sets the name of the log.
LogDisplayName	Gets the log's display name.
MachineName	Gets/sets the name of the log's computer.
Source	Gets/sets the source name to use when writing to the log.

Table 5: Noteworthy public methods of *EventLog* objects.
Method	Means
BeginInit	Begins the initialization operation of an event log.
Clear	Clears all entries from the log.
Close	Closes the log.
EndInit	Ends the initialization operation of an event log.
WriteEntry	Writes an entry in the event log.