Logging Events

by By Ted Williams—NOCCC, , TedWilliams@alum.mit.edu - June 02, 2001 at 15:18:59:

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Are you looking for a simple way to track all the reboots that you have made over the last month? Or, do you want to know what has been added to a log file each time that you added some entries to the log file?

If you use Windows9x, Windows ME, or Windows 2000, the Notepad text editor provides a little-known feature that can help. Using the steps shown below, you can easily add a time-stamp to a text file every time you open the text file for editing.

Create a Notepad Text Document with Logging

The entry .LOG on a line by itself causes Notepad to add a timestamp to the bottom of the document every time that the document is opened up. As an example, try the following:

• Right-click on an empty area of your windows desktop. Select New, Text Document.

• Edit the name of the text document to “Reboots.txt” (or whatever name you prefer).

• Double click on the text document icon to start the Notepad editor.

• At the top of the document, add a single line containing .LOG (period in front and capitals) by itself.

• Enter any events that you wish to track in whatever format you prefer.

• If you are just tracking reboots, skip this step.

• Press Alt F S to save your added events.

• Select File, Exit on the menu bar at the top to close the editor.

Tracking Reboots—To track reboots, just move your new log file to the startup menu. That way, the log file is opened automatically on every reboot. To move the above log file:

• Right-click on the Start button on the left side of your taskbar.

• Select Open. In the explorer window that is opened, select the icon named Programs.

• Select Programs and then scroll down to the Startup icon.

• Select the Startup icon to open the startup folder.

• Select and drag the above text document from your desktop into the Startup folder.

Now, every time you start or restart your computer, a timestamp will be automatically added to your log file.

The Microsoft documentation for this feature is available by selecting the Help menu selection while you are using Notepad. Just select “Help Topics” and then select “Append a Log to a Document” (this help documentation is available in Windows 2000, but may not be available on all versions of Windows).

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Last update: 6/02/2001

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