Event Logging (Windows Installer)

Windows Events provides a standard, centralized way for applications (and the operating system) to record important software and hardware events. The event-logging service stores events from various sources in a single collection called an event log. Prior to WindowsВ Vista, you would use either Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) or Event Logging to log events. WindowsВ Vista introduced a new eventing model that unifies both ETW and the Windows Event Log API.

The installer also writes entries into the event log. These record events such as following:

• Success or failure of the installation; removal or repair of a product.
• Errors that occur during product configuration.
• Detection of corrupted configuration data.

If a large amount of information is written, the Event Log file can become full and the installer displays the message, «The Application log file is full.»

The installer may write the following entries in the event log. All event log messages have a unique event ID. All general errors authored in the Error table that are returned for an installation that fails are logged in the Application Event Log with a message ID equal to the Error + 10,000. For example, the error number in the Error table for an installation completed successfully is 1707. The successful installation is logged in the Application Event Log with a message ID of 11707 (1707 + 10,000).

For information about how to enable verbose logging on a user’s computer when troubleshooting deployment, see Windows Installer Best Practices.

Windows Event Log Service not starting or is unavailable

Windows Event Log service maintains a set of event logs that the system, system components, and applications use to record events. The service exposes functions that allow programs to maintain and manage the event logs and perform operations on the logs, such as archiving and clearing. As such, administrators can maintain event logs and perform administrative tasks requiring administrator privileges.

Windows Event Log Service Not Starting or Running

For some unknown reason, if you find you are having difficulty starting the following, it is quite possible that one of the reasons could be that Windows Event Log Service is Not Running.

• Task Scheduler
• Windows Event Calendar
• Messenger Sharing Folders

In such a scenario, you may get error messages like:

Event Log service is unavailable. Verify that the service is running

Windows could not start the Windows Event Log service on Local Computer

First, reboot your system and see if it helps. Sometimes a simple restart helps reinitialize this service. If the Windows Event Log shows as being started, re-start it from Services Manager.

To check if the Windows Event Log service is started or stopped, Run services.msc and hit Enter to open the Services Manager. Here, again right-click on Windows Event Log Service, check up its Properties.

Ensure that the Startup type is set on Automatic and that the services is Started; and that it runs in the Local Service account.

Also ensure in the Recovery tab, all three drop-down boxes, show the option as ‘Restart the Service’, in case of Failure. Reboot if required.

At times the Windows Event Log Service still will not start, and you may instead get the following error message:

System cannot find the file specified

In this case, open the following folder:

This logs folder contains Event Logs in .evtx format and can only be read with the Event Viewer. Give this logs folder Read-Write access rights and see if it helps.

You might also want to do the following.

Open Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:

Double-click ObjectName and ensure that its value is set at NT AUTHORITY\LocalService. If it is not, then change it.

If it still does not help, run the System File Checker and go through its logs.

Eventlog Key

The event log contains the following standard logs as well as custom logs:

Log	Description
Application	Contains events logged by applications. For example, a database application might record a file error. The application developer decides which events to record.
Security	Contains events such as valid and invalid logon attempts, as well as events related to resource use such as creating, opening, or deleting files or other objects. An administrator can start auditing to record events in the security log.
System	Contains events logged by system components, such as the failure of a driver or other system component to load during startup.
CustomLog	Contains events logged by applications that create a custom log. Using a custom log enables an application to control the size of the log or attach ACLs for security purposes without affecting other applications.

The event logging service uses the information stored in the Eventlog registry key. The Eventlog key contains several subkeys, called logs. Each log contains information that the event logging service uses to locate resources when an application writes to and reads from the event log.

The structure of the Eventlog key is as follows:

Note that domain controllers record events in the Directory service and File Replication service logs and DNS servers record events in the DNS server.

Each log can contain the following registry values.

Registry value	Description
CustomSD	Restricts access to the event log. This value is of type REG_SZ. The format used is Security Descriptor Definition Language (SDDL). Construct an ACL that grants one or more of the following rights: Clear (0x0004) Read (0x0001) Write (0x0002) To be a syntactically valid SDDL, the CustomSD value must specify an owner and a group owner (for example, O:BAG:SY), but the owner and group owner are not used. If CustomSD is set to a wrong value, an event is fired in the System event log when the event log service starts, and the event log gets a default security descriptor which is identical to the original CustomSD value for the Application log. SACLs are not supported. For more information, see Event Logging Security. Windows Server 2003: SACLs are supported. Windows XP/2000: This value is not supported.
DisplayNameFile	This value is not used. Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP/2000: Name of the file that stores the localized name of the event log. The name stored in this file appears as the log name in Event Viewer. If this entry does not appear in the registry for an event log, Event Viewer displays the name of the registry subkey as the log name. This value is of type REG_EXPAND_SZ. The default value is %SystemRoot%\system32\els.dll.
DisplayNameID	This value is not used. Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP/2000: Message identification number of the log name string. This number indicates the message in which the localized display name appears. The message is stored in the file specified by the DisplayNameFile value. This value is of type REG_DWORD.
File	Fully qualified path to the file where each event log is stored. This enables Event Viewer and other applications to find the log files. This value is of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ. This value is optional. If the value is not specified, it defaults to %SystemRoot%\system32\winevt\logs\ followed by a file name that is based on the event log registry key name.The specific event log file path should be set using the command line utility wevtutil.exe or by using the EvtSetChannelConfigProperty function with EvtChannelLoggingConfigLogFilePath passed into the PropertyId parameter. If a specific file is set, make sure that the event log service has full permissions on the file. This value needs to be a valid file name for a file that is located on a local directory (not a remote computer, not a DOS device, not a floppy, and not a pipe). If the file setting is wrong, an event is fired in the System event log when the event log service starts. Do not use environment variables, in the path to the file, that cannot be expanded in the context of the event log service. Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP/2000: This value defaults to %SystemRoot%\system32\config\ followed by a file name that is based on the event log registry key name. If the File setting is set to an invalid value, the log will either not be initialized properly, or all requests will silently go to the default log (Application).
MaxSize	Maximum size, in bytes, of the log file. This value is of type REG_DWORD. The value must be set to a multiple of 64K for a System, Application, or Security log. The default value is 1MB.Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP/2000: The value is limited to 0xFFFFFFFF, and the default value is 512K.
PrimaryModule	This value is not used.Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP/2000: This value is the name of the subkey that contains the default values for the entries in the subkey for the event source. This value is of type REG_SZ.
Retention	This value is of type REG_DWORD. The default value is 0. If this value is 0, the records of events are always overwritten. If this value is 0xFFFFFFFF or any nonzero value, records are never overwritten. When the log file reaches its maximum size, you must clear the log manually; otherwise, new events are discarded. You must also clear the log before you can change its size.Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP/2000: This value is the time interval, in seconds, that records of events are protected from being overwritten. When the age of an event reaches or exceeds this value, it can be overwritten.
Sources	This value is not used. Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP/2000: Names of the applications, services, or groups of applications that write events to this log. This value should only be read and not altered. The event log service maintains the list based on each program listed in a subkey under the log. This value is of type REG_MULTI_SZ.
AutoBackupLogFiles	This value is of type REG_DWORD, and is used by the event log service to determine whether an event log should be automatically saved. The default value is 0, which disables auto-backup. The service will back up the log file only if the retention value is -1 (0xFFFFFFFF). Other values will be ignored.Windows Server 2003: Retention can be set to -1 (0xFFFFFFFF) or 1 (0x00000001) for AutoBackupLogFiles to work. Other values will be ignored.
RestrictGuestAccess	This value is not used. Windows XP/2000: This value is of type REG_DWORD, and the default value is 1. When the value is set to 1, it restricts the Guest and Anonymous account access to the event log, and when this value is 0, it allows Guest account access to the event log.
Isolation	Defines the default access permissions for the log. This value is of type REG_SZ. You can specify one of the following values: Application System Custom The default isolation is Application. The default permissions for Application are (shown using SDDL): The default permissions for System are (shown using SDDL): The default permissions for Custom isolation is the same as Application. Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP/2000: This value is not available.

Each log also contains event sources. For more information, see Event Sources.

«Windows Event Log» service not starting

When I start the «Windows Event Log» service I get the following error:

Windows could not start the Windows Event Log service on Local Computer.

Error 15008: The specified xml text was not well-formed. See Extended Error for more details.

Any suggestion on how to make this sevice work again?

Replies (5) 

The Event Viewer is one of the useful tools within Windows that can help users to diagnose and correct errors. At times, you might encounter errors with the Event Viewer due to corrupted or missing system files. As an initial troubleshooting, we recommend that you Start your PC in safe mode.

If the issue persists, follow the steps provided in this article to use the System File Checker tool to repair missing or corrupted system files. For further troubleshooting, you can also refer to the resolution provided by rung_windows7 in this thread.

Update us with the outcome.

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Thanks very much for the quick answer.

I tried to start the PC in safe mode but the «Windows Event Log» gave the same error.

Then I tried the solution in your link (https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/cannot-start-windows-event-log-service-on-windows/e2c218ad-8637-49ee-8023-50eae0e4ddcb) and it didn’t worked too.

Finally I tried the sfc tool, following the instructions in https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929833/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system.

It gave the following output:

«Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.14393]
(c) 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired
them. Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For
example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. Note that logging is currently not
supported in offline servicing scenarios.»

But unfortunately it didn’t solve the issue.