How to know the last time the laptop or computer was turned on
If you have a curious sibling or family member, you may be suspicious that someone has been turning on your computer without your permission. While you can always password-protect Windows via Windows Settings to prevent intruders from unauthorized access to your important files, checking the last time the Power button was pressed and your computer turned on is a great way to at least confirm your suspicions about whether or not someone has tried to use your device while you were away.
I certainly do not suggest you to hide and watch who will turn on the device now!, or install a surveillance camera nearby, these traditional solutions are unnecessary because there is a trick in the Windows system that allows you to see a detailed log of every operation that was done on the computer or laptop . Therefore, this trick will help you know if someone is using your computer while you were absent or there is no need to suspect.
Event Viewer is a useful tool and an integral part of Windows, in all its versions, as it records every action and event that occurs while using the computer. Its purpose is to help solve problems and errors in Windows or programs, so that you can know what action caused the problem and then avoid it or work on the solution. It can also be used as a monitoring tool to track the aggressors, and of course this is useful for discovering the times and dates of computer startups. Let's see below how we can run this tool and view the logins that have occurred since purchasing the computer, or at least, since installing Windows .
There are many ways to run the Event Viewer tool. If you are using Windows 8, 8.1, or 10, press the Windows key + the letter X together and you will find the Event Viewer option in the menu that appears on the screen. Or search in the Start menu under the Windows Administrative Tools folder, or type Event Viewer in the search field on the taskbar. The easiest way, which applies to all versions of Windows without exception, is to press the Windows key + the letter R together and type "eventvwr.msc" in the Run window that appears on the screen, then press OK to immediately show you the Event Viewer window.
When the Event Viewer window appears, you will notice that the recorded events and actions are arranged according to many categories and sections. This is to make accessing specific events faster and easier, as organization is required in such records that collect everything.
Generally, the computer's startup log is stored in the "System Logs" section, which you can access by double-clicking to expand the "Windows Logs" category on the left side of the tool window, then selecting "System" [ as shown in the attached image above ] and then on the right side you will find a list of all the events and actions recorded, as we mentioned earlier, since the computer or laptop was first used.
Well, in the list of system logs displayed inside the Event Viewer tool, scroll down until you find the first thing called “ Power-Troubleshooter ” under the Source column. This represents the process that started your computer or laptop, and looking at the Date and Time column next to it, you’ll find the time and date that this process started [ as shown above ]. This also represents the last time the machine was turned on. In general, just check the time that you suspect the computer was used, and see if there were any events or actions that took place after that. You can also see more details in the pane at the bottom of the window.
You will certainly notice that the system logs inside the Event Viewer tool include a lot of other events, and thus searching for all the computer startup processes will be somewhat difficult. But there is a solution, which is to simply click on the Find option under the System section in the menu on the right side, then in the window that appears, type "Power-Troubleshooter" and click on the Find Next button to display the second computer startup process in the list, clicking on the button again to display the third process... and so on, and thus you can easily view all the computer startup processes in the list.
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