Does Event logger in C# needs admin privileges to write logs into Windows Event Viewer?

Question

In my C# application I am using the EventLog class to log messages. It works perfectly fine on my machine, but doesn't work on a client machine.

The client machine configuration is different than my machine. My machine has Vista OS, whereas the client has Windows Server 2003.

I have admin rights on my machine whereas on the client machine my application runs under non-admin user privileges.

On the client machine I get an error:

Faulting application <app_name>, version ,faulting module kernel32.dll

My application stopped crashing on the client machine when I commented out EventLog.WriteEntry() method calls and started to write logs into a simple text file.

So I was just wondering whether event logging needs administrator privileges or what?

Environment detail : C# (.NET 2.0 Framework), on Windows Server 2003

Somewhat related question.

gcode
– gcode

2025-11-07 18:13:55 +00:00
Commented Nov 7 at 18:13 — gcode
– gcode, Commented Nov 7 at 18:13

Alexei Levenkov · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-24 04:38:07Z

14

System.Diagnostics.EventLog class in .NET Framework 3.5 @ MSDN:

If you write to an event log, you must specify or create an event Source. You must have administrative rights on the computer to create a new event source.

...

If the event source for the event log associated with the EventLog instance doesn't exist, a new event source is created. To create an event source in Windows Vista and later or Windows Server 2003, you must have administrative credentials.

This requirement is because all event logs, including Security logs, must be searched to determine whether the event source is unique. Starting with Windows Vista, users do not have permission to access the Security log; therefore, a SecurityException is thrown.

edited Mar 24, 2021 at 4:38

Alexei Levenkov

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answered Oct 14, 2010 at 6:13

Shoban

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1 Comment

Emperor Eto May 12 at 18:08

Which makes it practically useless.

Bo Christian Skjøtt · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-28 08:45:34Z

9

One solution is to create the required Event Source in your application installer, which runs with admin rights. See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;329291

answered Sep 28, 2011 at 8:45

Bo Christian Skjøtt

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