Get-Win Event

Syntax

Get-WinEvent
   [[-LogName] <String[]>]
   [-MaxEvents <Int64>]
   [-ComputerName <String>]
   [-Credential <PSCredential>]
   [-FilterXPath <String>]
   [-Force]
   [-Oldest]
   [<CommonParameters>]

Get-WinEvent
   [-ListLog] <String[]>
   [-ComputerName <String>]
   [-Credential <PSCredential>]
   [-Force]
   [<CommonParameters>]

Get-WinEvent
   [-ListProvider] <String[]>
   [-ComputerName <String>]
   [-Credential <PSCredential>]
   [<CommonParameters>]

Get-WinEvent
   [-ProviderName] <String[]>
   [-MaxEvents <Int64>]
   [-ComputerName <String>]
   [-Credential <PSCredential>]
   [-FilterXPath <String>]
   [-Force]
   [-Oldest]
   [<CommonParameters>]

Get-WinEvent
   [-Path] <String[]>
   [-MaxEvents <Int64>]
   [-Credential <PSCredential>]
   [-FilterXPath <String>]
   [-Oldest]
   [<CommonParameters>]

Get-WinEvent
   [-MaxEvents <Int64>]
   [-ComputerName <String>]
   [-Credential <PSCredential>]
   [-FilterHashtable] <Hashtable[]>
   [-Force]
   [-Oldest]
   [<CommonParameters>]

Get-WinEvent
   [-MaxEvents <Int64>]
   [-ComputerName <String>]
   [-Credential <PSCredential>]
   [-FilterXml] <XmlDocument>
   [-Oldest]
   [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Get-WinEvent cmdlet gets events from event logs, including classic logs, such as the System and Application logs, and the event logs that are generated by the Windows Event Log technology introduced in Windows Vista. It also gets events in log files generated by Event Tracing for Windows (ETW).

Without parameters, a Get-WinEvent command gets all the events from all the event logs on the computer. To interrupt the command, press CTRL + C.

Get-WinEvent also lists event logs and event log providers. You can get events from selected logs or from logs generated by selected event providers. And, you can combine events from multiple sources in a single command. This cmdlet allows you to filter events by using XPath queries, structured XML queries, and simplified hash-table queries.

Examples

Example 1: Get all the logs from a local computer

PS C:\> Get-WinEvent -ListLog  *

This command gets all the logs on the local computer.

Logs are listed in the order that Get-WinEvent gets them. Classic logs are usually retrieved first, followed by the new Windows Eventing logs.

Because there are typically more than a hundred event logs, this parameter requires a log name or name pattern. To get all the logs, use *.

Example 2: Get the classic system log from a local computer

PS C:\> Get-WinEvent -ListLog Setup | Format-List -Property *



FileSize                       : 69632

IsLogFull                      : False

LastAccessTime                 : 2/14/2008 12:55:12 AM

LastWriteTime                  : 7/9/2008 3:12:05 AM

OldestRecordNumber             : 1

RecordCount                    : 3

LogName                        : Setup

LogType                        : Operational

LogIsolation                   : Application

IsEnabled                      : True

IsClassicLog                   : False

SecurityDescriptor             : O:BAG:SYD:(A;;0xf0007;;;SY)(A;

(A;;0x1;;;S-1-5-32-573)

LogFilePath                    : %SystemRoot%\System32\Winevt\L

MaximumSizeInBytes             : 1052672

LogMode                        : Circular

OwningProviderName             : Microsoft-Windows-Eventlog

ProviderNames                  : {Microsoft-Windows-WUSA, Micro

ProviderLevel                  :

ProviderKeywords               :

ProviderBufferSize             : 64

ProviderMinimumNumberOfBuffers : 0

ProviderMaximumNumberOfBuffers : 64

ProviderLatency                : 1000

ProviderControlGuid            :

This command gets an object that represents the classic System log on the local computer. The object includes useful information about the log, including its size, event log provider, file path, and whether it is enabled.

Example 3: Get event logs from a server

PS C:\> Get-WinEvent -ListLog * -ComputerName Server01 |Where-Object {$_.RecordCount}

This command gets only event logs on the Server01 computer that contain events. Many logs might be empty.

The command uses the RecordCount property of the EventLogConfiguration object that Get-WinEvent returns when you use the ListLog parameter.

Example 4: Get event logs from multiple servers

PS C:\> $S = "Server01", "Server02", "Server03"

PS C:\> ForEach ($Server in $S) {$Server; Get-WinEvent -ListLog "Windows PowerShell" -Computername $Server}

This example gets objects that represent the Windows PowerShell event logs on the Server01, Server02, and Server03 computers. This command uses the ForEach keyword because the ComputerName parameter takes only one value.

The first command saves the names of the computers in the $S variable.

The second command uses a ForEach statement. For each of the computers in the $S variable, it performs the command in the script block (within the braces). First, the command prints the name of the computer. Then, it runs a Get-WinEvent command to get an object that represents the Windows PowerShell log.

Example 5: Get event log providers and logs from a local computer

PS C:\> Get-WinEvent -ListProvider *

This command gets the event log providers on the local computer and the logs to which they write, if any.

Example 6: Get all event log providers that write to a specific log

PS C:\> (Get-WinEvent -ListLog Application).ProviderNames

This command gets all of the providers that write to the Application log on the local computer.

Example 7: Get event log providers that have a specific string in the name

PS C:\> Get-WinEvent -ListProvider *Policy*

This command gets the event log providers whose names include the word Policy.

Example 8: Get event IDs that the event provider generates

PS C:\> (Get-WinEvent -ListProvider Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy).Events | Format-Table ID, Description -AutoSize

This command lists the event IDs that the Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy event provider generates along with the event description.

It uses the Events property of the object that Get-WinEvent returns when you use the ListProvider parameter, and it uses the ID and Description properties of the object in the Events property.

Example 9: Get properties of event objects

The first command uses the **Get-WinEvent** cmdlet to get all of the events in the Windows PowerShell event log. Then, it saves them in the $Events variable. The log name is enclosed in quotation marks because it contains a space.

PS C:\> $Events = Get-WinEvent -LogName "Windows PowerShell"



The second command uses the **Count** property of object collections to find the number of entries in the event log.

PS C:\> $Events.Count

195



The third command displays the incidence of each event in the log, with the most frequent events first. In this example, event ID 600 is the most frequent event.

PS C:\> $Events | Group-Object -Property Id -NoElement | Sort-Object -Property Count -Descending



Count Name

----- ----

147 600

22 400

21 601

3 403

2 103



The fourth command groups the items by the value of their **LevelDisplayName** property to show how many Error, Warning, and Information events are in the log.

PS C:\> $Events | Group-Object -Property LevelDisplayName -NoElement



Count Name

----- ----

2 Warning

193 Information

This example shows how to use the properties of the event objects that Get-WinEvent returns to learn about the events in an event log.

Example 10: Get error events that have a specified string in their name

PS C:\> Get-WinEvent -LogName *disk*, Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-WHEA

This command gets the error events whose names include disk from all of the event logs on the computer and from the Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-WHEA event log.

Example 11: Get events from a copy of the wps_2 event log file

PS C:\> Get-WinEvent -Path 'c:\ps-test\Windows PowerShell.evtx'

This command gets events from a copy of the Windows PowerShell event log file in a test directory. The path is enclosed in quotation marks because the log name includes a space.

Example 12: Get the first 100 events from an ETW event trace log

The first command gets the 100 oldest events in the log. It uses the **Get-WinEvent** cmdlet to get events from the Tracelog.etl file. It uses the *MaxEvents* parameter to limit the retrieval to 100 events. Because the events are listed in the order in which they are written to the log (oldest first), the *Oldest* parameter is required.

PS C:\> Get-WinEvent -Path 'C:\Tracing\TraceLog.etl' -MaxEvents 100 -Oldest



The second command gets the 100 newest events in the log. It uses the **Get-WinEvent** cmdlet to get all the events from the Tracing.etl file. It pipes the events to the Sort-Object cmdlet, which sorts them in descending order by the value of the **TimeCreated** property. Then, it pipes the sorted events to the Select-Object cmdlet to select the newest 100 events.

PS C:\> Get-WinEvent -Path 'C:\Tracing\TraceLog.etl' -Oldest | Sort-Object -Property TimeCreated -Descending | Select-Object -First 100

These commands get the first 100 events from an Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) event trace log file.

Example 13: Get events from an event trace log

PS C:\> Get-WinEvent -Path "C:\Tracing\TraceLog.etl", "c:\Logs\Windows PowerShell.evtx" -Oldest | Where-Object {$_.ID -eq "103"}

This example shows how to get the events from an event trace log file (.etl) and from a copy of the Windows PowerShell log file (.evtx) that was saved to a test directory.

You can combine multiple file types in a single command. Because the files contain the same type of .NET Framework object (an EventLogRecord object), you can use the same properties to filter them.

The command requires the Oldest parameter because it is reading from an .etl file, but the Oldest parameter applies to both of the files.

Example 14: Filter event log results

PS C:\> # Use the Where-Object cmdlet



PS C:\> $Yesterday = (Get-Date) - (New-TimeSpan -Day 1)

PS C:\> Get-WinEvent -LogName "Windows PowerShell" | Where-Object {$_.TimeCreated -ge $Yesterday}



# Uses FilterHashTable



PS C:\> $Yesterday = (Get-Date) - (New-TimeSpan -Day 1)

PS C:\> Get-WinEvent -FilterHashTable @{LogName='Windows PowerShell'; Level=3; StartTime=$Yesterday}



# Use FilterXML



PS C:\> Get-WinEvent -FilterXML "<QueryList><Query><Select Path='Windows PowerShell'>*[System[Level=3 and TimeCreated[timediff(@SystemTime)<= 86400000]]]</Select></Query></QueryList>"



# Use FilterXPath



PS C:\> Get-WinEvent -LogName "Windows Powershell" -FilterXPath "*[System[Level=3 and TimeCreated[timediff(@SystemTime) <= 86400000]]]"

This example shows different filtering methods for selecting events from an event log. All of these commands get events that occurred in the last 24 hours from the Windows PowerShell event log.

The filter methods are more efficient than using the Where-Object cmdlet because the filters are applied while the objects are being retrieved, rather than retrieving all the objects and then filtering them.

Because dates are difficult to formulate in the XML and XPath formats, to create the XML content for the date, the Filter Current Log feature of Event Viewer is used. For more information about this feature, see Event Viewer Help.

Example 15: Use a filter hash table to get events from the performance log

PS C:\> $Date = (Get-Date).AddDays(-2)

PS C:\> $Events = Get-WinEvent -FilterHashTable @{ LogName = "Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance/Operational"; StartTime = $Date; ID = 100 }

This example uses a filter hash table to get events from the performance log.

The first command uses the Get-Date cmdlet and the AddDays method to get a date that is two days before the current date. It saves the date in the $date variable.

The second command uses the Get-WinEvent cmdlet with the FilterHashTable parameter. The keys in the hash table define a filter that selects events from the performance log that occurred within the last two days and that have event ID 100.

The LogName key specifies the event log, the StartTime key specifies the date, and the ID key specifies the event ID.

Example 16: Use a filter hash table to get IE application errors

PS C:\> $StartTime = (Get-Date).AddDays(-7)

PS C:\> $IE_Error = Get-WinEvent -FilterHashtable @{Logname="Application"; ProviderName="Application Error"; Data="iexplore.exe"; StartTime=$StartTime}

This example uses a filter hash table to find Internet Explorer application errors that occurred within the last week.

The first command gets the date that is seven days before the current date and stores it in the $StartTime variable.

The second command uses the Get-WinEvent cmdlet with the FilterHashTable parameter. The keys in the hash table define a filter that selects events from the Application log that were written by the Application Error provider and include the phrase "iexplore.exe".

The LogName key specifies the event log. The ProviderName key specifies the event provider, the StartTime key specifies the starting date of the events, and the Data key specifies the text in the event message.

Required Parameters

Optional Parameters

Inputs

System.String, System.Xml.XmlDocument, System.Collections.Hashtable.

You can pipe a LogName (string), a FilterXML query, or a FilterHashTable query to Get-WinEvent .

Outputs

System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.EventLogConfiguration, System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.EventLogRecord, System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.ProviderMetadata

With the ListLog parameter, Get-WinEvent returns System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.EventLogConfiguration objects. With the ListProvider parameter, Get-WinEvent returns System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.ProviderMetadata objects. With all other parameters, Get-WinEvent returns System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.EventLogRecord objects.

Notes

• Get-WinEvent runs on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 R2, and later versions of Windows.
• This cmdlet is designed to replace the Get-EventLog cmdlet on computers running Windows Vista and later versions of Windows. Get-EventLog gets events only in classic event logs. Get-EventLog is retained in Windows PowerShell for backward compatibility.
• The Get-WinEvent and Get-EventLog cmdlets are not supported in Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE).