EventLog Inspector can display popups to warn you of alerts as they happen, though: just click Settings > Popups to choose the options you need. One notable issue with Windows events is you generally don't notice them until long after they've happened, when you happen to open the logs. (We found the scripting didn't work properly in Internet Explorer - sections of the report wouldn't open and close correctly - so if you notice the same, open it in some other browser instead.) There are useful options here, but just click 'Generate' for now and EventLog Inspector produces a detailed HTML report covering all the system log events for the past 8 hours. If your PC has been misbehaving recently, click EventLogs > Generate Custom Report.

These events don't always mean very much, but once you're used to how your system looks normally, you'll see at a glance whether there's something unusual going on.

Launch the program, click Start Service, and immediately you'll see a small graph showing 'error' and 'warning' events for this PC over the last 14 days.

EventLog Inspector is an excellent free (for non-commercial use) program which helps you get more from the Windows event logs.

Download FullEventLogView 1.78