Oftentimes, bad things happen to good computers. Sometimes, you want to know why these bad things happen. One convenient way to do this is to view the system log, which is viewed by the “Event Viewer” in Windows 2000 and XP. To get to the event viewer, go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer. When the console opens, you will notice that there are three independent logs: Application, Security, and System. The application log covers all events relating to non-critical system applications, which includes application crashes and hangs, driver issues, and hidden errors. The security log covers all events relating to system security, and for most users is completely empty. Finally, the System log covers all events relating to critical or integral system functions, including total hardware failure, memory errors, login errors, service failures, networking issues, and soforth. The best thing about the Event Viewer is that you can oftentimes copy and paste any error into a search engine (ie. Google) and yield a result that can help you on your quest to determine what exactly is wrong.