We tend to rely so much on computers now that we store all the information, critical data, pictures, personal videos, and lots of stuff only on them. We might not be even aware that someone could have tried to access our personal information and may have copied it or damaged it seriously. It is very important to have strict security measures on your computer so that your information stays safe on your computer. Though we may have many security measures but still chances of intrusion are very much possible. In this post I will let you know how to check if somebody accessed your computer in your absence and for how long.
Computers save logs of critical events like login, logoff, installation, errors and much more and these logs can be read to find out if your computer was used in your absence by anybody. Though it will not tell you who used your computer but still after knowing this fact you can strengthen the security measures so that it doesn’t happen again.
Let us learn the steps of checking the logs and finding out if your computer was used in your absence or not.
Step 1: Click on the ‘Start’ button and then click on ‘Run’. If ‘Run’ option is not present then press the ‘Windows’ key along with the ‘R’ key. This will open the ‘Run’ box for you.
Step 2: In the ‘Run’ box please type a command ‘eventvwr’. Press ‘Enter’ after typing this command to open the ‘Event Viewer’ window.
Step 3: This window is divided in to two or three sections depending upon the version of Windows you are using, but the first section/pane will always have a tree in it starting as ‘Event Viewer (Local)’. Click on it to expand and get other links.
Step 4: Double click the option called ‘Windows logs’
Step 5: Click on ‘System Logs’ under ‘Windows Logs’ and now you will see much of the information in the second pane.
Information given in the second pane is nothing but unique logs of events that occurred on your system. Starting logs will be of the current session, but if you scroll down a little you will find previous session logs. Each log has a date and time stamp on it so you can easily make out with this if you were the one working on this computer at that time or not. If you were not the one who was working at any given time then it is for sure that someone else started your computer and used it. You can check the logs in detail and you might also know what all applications were accessed and what other major changes were done to your computer while you were not there.
