An Introduction to Windows Event Log and ETW — Putting Your Business App's Logs on the OS's Standard Mechanisms (archived 2026-07-27)

Are you relying on file logging alone for your Windows business app? Event Log and ETW are records visible on a different layer — to operations staff and OS-standard tools. This article covers when to use each of the three mechanisms, how to write to them from .NET, ETW instrumentation with EventSource, the practicalities of collecting and investigating logs, and pitfalls like unregistered sources and log bloat. Archived version of https://comcomponent.com/en/blog/windows-eventlog-etw-structured-logging/, as published on 2026-07-27. The live article is maintained and may change after this date. First published 2026-07-04.