Q216089: HOWTO: Back Up the NT Event Log in Visual Basic

Article: Q216089
Product(s): Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows
Version(s): WINDOWS:4.0,5.0,6.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbAPI kbEventLog kbOSWinNT400 kbSDKWin32 kbVBp kbVBp400 kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbGrpDSVB kbD
Last Modified: 11-JAN-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Visual Basic Standard Edition, 32-bit, for Windows, version 4.0 
- Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition, 32-bit, for Windows, version 4.0 
- Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition, 32-bit, for Windows, version 4.0 
- Microsoft Visual Basic Learning Edition for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0 
- Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0 
- Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

Event logging in Windows provides a standard, centralized way for Windows and
applications to record important software and hardware events. It also supplies
a standard user interface for viewing the logs and a programming interface for
examining the logs.

This article illustrates how to back up the NT Event Log with Visual Basic
versions 4.0 and later. This can be done using the BackupEventLog API call.
While Visual Basic versions 5.0 and later have built-in functionality for
event-logging, they do not provide the backup functionality that the Win32 API
does.

MORE INFORMATION
================

The following example shows how to back up the local Application Event Log to a
file named appback.evt:

Step by Step Example:

1. Create a new standard project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.

2. Add a CommandButton to Form1 and change its name to "cmdBackupEventLog "
  (without the quotation marks).

3. Add the following code to the Form1 code window:

  Private Declare Function BackupEventLog Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "BackupEventLogA" ( _
      ByVal hEventLog As Long, _
      ByVal lpBackupFileName As String) _
      As Long

  Private Declare Function CloseEventLog Lib "advapi32.dll" ( _
      ByVal hEventLog As Long) _
      As Long

  Private Declare Function OpenEventLog Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "OpenEventLogA" ( _
      ByVal lpUNCServerName As String, _
      ByVal lpSourceName As String) _
      As Long

  Private Sub cmdBackupEventLog_Click()
      Dim hEventLog As Long
      Dim lretv As Long
      
      hEventLog = OpenEventLog(VBNullString, "Application")
      If hEventLog = 0 Then
           Debug.Print "OpenEventLog Failed"
           Exit Sub
      End If
      
      lretv = BackupEventLog(hEventLog, "appback.evt")
      If lretv = 0 Then
           Debug.Print "BackupEventLog Failed"
           Exit Sub
      End If
                  
      lretv = CloseEventLog(hEventLog)
      If lretv = 0 Then
           Debug.Print "CloseEventLog Failed"
           Exit Sub
      End If

  End Sub

4. Press the F5 key to run the project and click cmdBackupEventLog. This backs
  up the Event Log to the file appback.evt.

REFERENCES
==========

  For additional information about event logging from Visual Basic, click the
  article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  Q154576 HOWTO: Write to the NT Event Log from Visual Basic

  

  Q161306 INFO: App.LogEvent Only Logs in Compiled Applications

  

  Q184747 INFO: Event Logging in Visual Basic

  

  Q216097 HOWTO: Clear the NT Event Log in Visual Basic

  

  Q216146 HOWTO: Get the Number of NT Event Log Records in Visual Basic

Additional query words:

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbAPI kbEventLog kbOSWinNT400 kbSDKWin32 kbVBp kbVBp400 kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbGrpDSVB kbDSupport 
Technology        : kbVBSearch kbAudDeveloper kbZNotKeyword6 kbZNotKeyword2 kbVB500Search kbVB600Search kbVBA500 kbVBA600 kbVB500 kbVB600 kbVB400Search kbVB400
Version           : WINDOWS:4.0,5.0,6.0
Issue type        : kbhowto

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