The Event ID descriptions in Windows XP’s Event Viewer are often very cryptic. Discover two methods for getting more detailed information about Event IDs.

If you’re troubleshooting a problem in Windows XP, you can turn to the Event Viewer to gather information about hardware, software, and system problems. By default, Event Viewer provides you with three kinds of logs: Application, Security, and System. In each of these logs, you’ll find any of the following types of events: Error, Warning, Information, Success Audit, and Failure Audit.

When you open an event, you’ll see a dialog box that contains basic information about the event such as the date and time on which it occurred, the source of the problem, and the Event ID. In the description field, you’ll find additional information about the event. Unfortunately, the Event ID descriptions are often very cryptic - especially those related to the Error and Warning events.

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