Chapter 12: Managing Log Files

Once Windows 10 computers are installed, they need to be monitored and managed. Windows 10 provides various tools for controlling your computer, including Event Viewer and a range of performance management features, such as Resource Monitor and Performance Monitor.

As well as knowing how to control your computers, you must also be familiar with how to handle vital Operating System(OS) elements, such as printing, indexing, and the various Windows services.

The following topics will be covered in this chapter:

• Configuring and analyzing event logs
• Managing performance
• Managing the Windows 10 environment

This chapter provides you with the skills you need to analyze event log errors on the current version of Windows 10. This will help you maintain the performance and environment of Windows 10. This chapter will also help you to prepare for the MD-100 (Windows 10) exam, which is part of the Microsoft 365 Certified: Modern Desktop...

Technical requirements

In this chapter, you will see us use PowerShell code. This code is available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Microsoft-Exam-MD-100-Windows-10-Certification-Guide/tree/master/Chapter12.

In this chapter, you will need to follow the steps to configure some settings. The steps that you will follow have also been recorded. You can find these videos at https://bit.ly/2LsQDqD.

Configuring and analyzing event logs

Event logs are a key built-in security resource in all Windows Operating Systems and can be accessed from Windows Event Viewer. They provide information about occurring system events. Event logs are created by the Event Log service as a background operation and can contain information, alerts, and error messages about Windows components, installed applications, and system behavior.

We will learn how to configure and analyze event logs in this section. In addition to log groups for individually installed applications and different Windows component categories, Event Viewer offers classified lists of important Windows log events, including applications, security, setup, and system events. Individual accidents provide comprehensive details about the type of incident that occurred, the cause of the incident, and specific technical information to assist with troubleshooting the accident.

Event Viewer also helps you merge logs from several machines...

Managing performance

Within Windows 10, there are a variety of tools you can use to monitor and manage results. These programs give you a graphical layout of historical data. Other programs also provide a method for gathering and evaluating data on results over time.

To monitor the output in Windows 10, you can use the following tools:

• Task Manager
• Resource Monitor
• Performance Monitor
• Reliability Monitor

We will look at each of these tools in the following sections. Let's start with the Task Manager tool.

Monitoring performance with Task Manager

The Task Manager tool is one of the most frequently used software by end users and administrators to monitor system output and the use of resources on a computer. Task Manager is mainly a tool that is used to track performance, not to track reliability.

Task Manager can be managed in a variety of ways. The numerous ways of opening Task Manager are listed as follows:

• Right-click on the taskbar...

Managing Windows 10 environment

In your daily job, you may have to resolve problems with regard to the slow performance of Windows 10 as well as managing print servers. Many end-users complain that their Windows 10 is slow in performance and you will have to solve this. For this reason, in this section we will focus on how you manage printers, monitor and customize indexing, assess device reliability, and customize and manage services.

Monitoring and managing printers

Windows 10 provides you with some extra tools to handle your printing, as opposed to previous Windows versions. The new Print Management desktop app and the new Printers & Scanners option in the Settings app that have been introduced provide you with important print management options, such as adding, removing, and setting printers as default.

You can still access the previous printer tools in the Control Panel's Device and Printers section or from the link in the Settings app at the bottom of the Printers...

Summary

In this last chapter, you learned how to understand event logs and their two different log types. You also familiarized yourself with working in the Event Viewer, how to read event logs, and how to use four different built-in apps to monitor the performance of Windows 10. You then familiarized yourself with how to track down potentially corrupted app installations or updates that could make a computer unstable, as well as how to manage and monitor printers. Finally, you learned how to carry out some speed enhancements in Windows as well as learning what a service is and how to configure it.

With the skills that you have learned in this chapter, you are able to configure and analyze event logs. You can now manage the performance of Windows 10 efficiently with configuring the indexing and the Windows services.

You are now ready to take the Microsoft MD-100 exam. Next, we will test the knowledge and lessons that you have learned from this book.

Questions

1. In Event Viewer, you will see a node called Forwarded Events. Is this node used to send logs to other computers?
2. To enable Windows Event Collector, can you use the winrm quickconfig command?
3. Can you use the perfmon command to open Resource Monitor?
4. Does Reliability Monitor measure the history of problems?
5. Can you use Network Printer Installation Wizard to install printers?
6. Are Type 3 printer drivers downloaded from Windows Update during installation?
7. Can you change the index location of the indexing services?

Further reading

• Windows Event Log: https://searchwindowsserver.techtarget.com/definition/Windows-event-log
• Windows Task Manager – The Complete Guide: https://www.howtogeek.com/405806/windows-task-manager-the-complete-guide/
• How to Get the Most out of Resource Monitor in Windows 10: https://techtalk.gfi.com/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-resource-monitor-in-windows-10/
• How to Use Performance Monitor on Windows 10: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-performance-monitor-windows-10
• Solving Problems Using Reliability Monitor in Windows 10: https://www.petri.com/solving-problems-using-reliability-monitor-in-windows-10
• Special Considerations with Windows Type 4 Print Drivers: https://www.papercut.com/kb/Main/WindowsType4PrintDrivers
• Starting or Stopping Windows Services from the Command Line (cmd): https://www.windows-commandline.com/start-stop-service-command-line/
• Managing Services: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/samples/managing...