Write to Windows Event Viewer from C#

First, create a new console app:

Next, add:

using System.Diagnostics;

Notice the Event Viewer in Windows has several areas:

• Windows Logs, which are:
  • Application
  • Security
  • Setup
  • System
  • Forwarded Events

And within each log, there are:

• Keywords
• Date and Time
• Source
• Event Id
• Task Category

To write to the application log, use the code:

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string Event = "Application has started";

            using (EventLog eventLog = new EventLog("Application"))
            {
                eventLog.Source = "Application";
                eventLog.WriteEntry(Event, EventLogEntryType.Information);
            }
        }

This will write to the Application log. Note the event id is not found for the new application:

In order to create a new log in the event viewer, use the code below:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Diagnostics;
 
namespace Carl.EventViewerTest
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string Event = "Application has started";
            string Source = "My App";
            string Log = "App";
 
            if (!EventLog.SourceExists(Source))
                EventLog.CreateEventSource(Source, Log);
 
            using (EventLog eventLog = new EventLog("App"))
            {
                eventLog.Source = "My App";
                eventLog.WriteEntry(Event, EventLogEntryType.Information);
            }
        }
    }
}

Notice there is a new log, “App” created under Applications and Service Logs:

ABOUT CARL DE SOUZA

Carl de Souza is a developer and architect focusing on Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power BI, Azure, and AI.

carldesouza.com | LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTube