Windows Event Viewer: How to detect when your PC has been misused

Many users share their computer with another or other people. It can be your personal or work computer. Generally, in these cases, each person usually has their user account. That is to avoid conflicts and that everything works in a better way. But, it can always be the case that someone accesses your computer. Even if you do not share your PC with other people.

Event Viewer, Windows Event Viewer: How to detect when your PC has been misused, Optocrypto

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There may be someone who accesses our computer without our permission. At first, we do not know what that person has done in that time with the use of our device. Hopefully, you may detect that a change in the browsing history or files.

But, this is not usually the most common case. Also, what do we do in this case? How do we see if someone has misused our equipment?

Event Viewer, Windows Event Viewer: How to detect when your PC has been misused, Optocrypto

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So, we just have to ask Windows. We can check when our computer has been used. Also, we can have information that if we are the only ones who have used the machine or there has been another person who has even use it without our permission. You can quickly verify that as it is a straightforward process. Thanks to a tool called Event Viewer.

Windows Events Viewer

The Windows Event Viewer is a tool that is present in all current versions of the operating system. It does not matter if you have XP or Windows 10, going through all the others. It is present in all versions. Which makes it an advantageous measure to check if someone uses our computer. Where can we find the event viewer?

How to start Event Viewer?

To find the Event Viewer we have to go to the Control Panel. Once inside the route we have to follow is the following path:

System and Maintenance> Administrative tools. Also, we can open it directly from the Run menu. In this case, we can activate it using this key combination: Windows + R. To open the viewer, we write “eventvwr.msc” then click on accept.

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Also, the Event Viewer will provide us with a lot of information about what happens on our PC. We will be able to know everything that happens on the computer while we were away from it. We can see when Windows services are running when an application is installed or uninstalled. In short, everything that happens.

Who is using your PC?

What we want to know is if someone has used our computer. For that purpose, in the Event Viewer, we have to go to Windows Records. Once there, we enter System. All this we do from the panel that is on the left side. When we have opened, the group shows a large number of entries. This information is mixed. So we will have to filter it to find what we are looking.

Event Viewer, Windows Event Viewer: How to detect when your PC has been misused, Optocrypto

We can do that from Actions and then the system, in the right side panel. Then click on current filter record. A new window will open and in the field of all id. of the event we have to indicate the following numbers: 1, 12, 13, 42. Why these numbers? Each one represents a different match.

 

  • Number 1 represents when the team has come out of suspension
  • The number 12 when the team started
  • Number 13 when we turned off the computer
  • Number 42 when it has entered into suspension or hibernation

Event Viewer, Windows Event Viewer: How to detect when your PC has been misused, Optocrypto

Thanks to this information we will be able to see when we have turned on our PC, or when we have turned it off. Also, from this information, we can also check the dates and the exact time to connect any hardware lines and check if our suspicions were right or wrong. We can see it at times when we know we were not at home or if someone has used the computer.

Also, we have the option to save a file with this information. So we can always check this history that shows us the activity of our PC sharing team at all times. We will be able to see everything in great detail. How to see which user and at what specific time has accessed the computer.

 

As you can see, the Windows Event Viewer is a handy tool. Thanks to it we can look the activity of our computer at all times. So, check if someone has entered and carried out improper actions with our PC. We hope that you have found it useful, especially if you suspect that someone has used your equipment. What do you think of the Event Viewer?