Write to Windows Application Event Log without event source registration

by

Yes, there is a way to write to the event log you are looking for. You don’t need to create a new source, just simply use the existent one, which often has the same name as the EventLog’s name and also, in some cases like the event log Application, can be accessible without administrative privileges*.

*Other cases, where you cannot access it directly, are the Security EventLog, for example, which is only accessed by the operating system.

I used this code to write directly to the event log Application:

using (EventLog eventLog = new EventLog("Application")) 
{
    eventLog.Source = "Application"; 
    eventLog.WriteEntry("Log message example", EventLogEntryType.Information, 101, 1); 
}

As you can see, the EventLog source is the same as the EventLog’s name. The reason of this can be found in Event Sources @ Windows Dev Center (I bolded the part which refers to source name):

Each log in the Eventlog key contains subkeys called event sources. The event source is the name of the software that logs the event. It is often the name of the application or the name of a subcomponent of the application if the application is large. You can add a maximum of 16,384 event sources to the registry.

More Related Contents:

  1. How can I register a global hot key to say CTRL+SHIFT+(LETTER) using WPF and .NET 3.5?
  2. Logger wrapper best practice
  3. Detecting USB drive insertion and removal using windows service and c#
  4. How can I run an EXE program from a Windows Service using C#?
  5. How to detect Windows shutdown or logoff
  6. Does C# have an equivalent to JavaScript’s encodeURIComponent()?
  7. How do I determine a mapped drive’s actual path?
  8. Unique file identifier in windows
  9. Retrieve system uptime using C#
  10. .NET (C#): Getting child windows when you only have a process handle or PID?
  11. Windows service with timer
  12. Watermark in System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
  13. How do I get information about recently connected USB device?
  14. Winforms: Application.Exit vs Environment.Exit vs Form.Close
  15. Should I take ILogger, ILogger, ILoggerFactory or ILoggerProvider for a library?
  16. How to check if another instance of the application is running [duplicate]
  17. The source was not found, but some or all event logs could not be searched
  18. C# – Regex for file paths e.g. C:\test\test.exe
  19. How do I get common file type icons in C#?
  20. Why is infinity printed as “8” in the Windows 10 console?
  21. “MoveFile” function in C# (Delete file after reboot)
  22. How do I spawn threads on different CPU cores?
  23. Bluetooth APIs in Windows/.Net?
  24. Domain credentials for a WebClient class don’t work
  25. Uninstall Custom Action Not Deleting Registry Key
  26. How can I detect when Windows 10 enters tablet mode in a Windows Forms application?
  27. Why does “\n” give a new line on Windows?
  28. Memory limitations in a 64-bit .Net application?
  29. Send message to a Windows process (not its main window)
  30. .NET Simulate Ctrl+Alt+Del Sendkeys

Leave a Comment