You probably have used Get-EventLog frequently to dump event log information, for example:
PS> Get-EventLog -LogName System -EntryType Error -Newest 6
Index Time EntryType Source InstanceID Message
----- ---- --------- ------ ---------- -------
5237 Jul 31 12:39 Error DCOM 10016 The des...
5234 Jul 31 09:54 Error DCOM 10016 The des...
5228 Jul 31 09:46 Error DCOM 10016 The des...
5227 Jul 31 09:40 Error DCOM 10016 The des...
5218 Jul 31 09:38 Error DCOM 10016 The des...
5217 Jul 31 09:38 Error DCOM 10016 The des...
PS>
If you’d like to create useful reports, though, make sure you format the output table and enable line wraps:
PS> Get-EventLog -LogName System -EntryType Error -Newest 6 | Format-Table -AutoSize -Wrap
Now you can easily pipe the results to Out-File and create meaningful text reports. Play with its -Width parameter to adjust the width of your report file as well.
And if you don’t know the exact name of a particular log, simply use “*” for -LogName:
PS> Get-EventLog -LogName *
Max(K) Retain OverflowAction Entries Log
------ ------ -------------- ------- ---
20.480 0 OverwriteAsNeeded 13.283 Application
512 7 OverwriteOlder 98 Dell
20.480 0 OverwriteAsNeeded 0 HardwareEvents
512 7 OverwriteOlder 0 Internet Explorer
512 7 OverwriteOlder 46 isaAgentLog
20.480 0 OverwriteAsNeeded 0 Key Management Service
128 0 OverwriteAsNeeded 97 OAlerts
Security
20.480 0 OverwriteAsNeeded 5.237 System
15.360 0 OverwriteAsNeeded 10.279 Windows PowerShell
