Diagnose and analyse Windows Operating System issues Using Event IDs

Event viewer is the tool that helps your butts here. Anytime your system crashes or an application freezes up, Event Viewer dutifully logs the error. It is under Start, Settings, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer. The utility's System node logs Windows issues and the Application node logs issues with other software. In addition, any Third-party apps might create more nodes. Events are fairly self-explanatory in themselves. The date/time of each event are logged along with its source and some relevant information. The list is usually long but the 'Information' labelled events are generally ignored. The 'Error' and 'Warning' entries are what you should deal with.

In the Event Properties window, there is detailed information about the error in question and a link to the Microsoft’s support Web site. The link will open a detailed page within the Windows Help application for the error.