PowerShell: Find a Specific Event ID in the Event Log

Need to search for a specific type of event - a particular error, warning, or system action - without scrolling through the entire log manually? This one-liner filters directly by Event ID.

Prerequisites:

Prerequisites:

• Privileges: None (for System and Application logs; Security log requires Administrator)
• Module: Built-in, no import needed

Quick Command:

Get-WinEvent -FilterHashtable @{LogName='System'; Id=1074} -MaxEvents 5

Example Output:

ProviderName: User32
TimeCreated                     Id LevelDisplayName Message
-----------                     -- ---------------- -------
7/17/2026 1:49:54 PM           1074 Information      The process C:\WINDOWS\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperience...
7/14/2026 11:24:53 PM          1074 Information      The process C:\WINDOWS\servicing\TrustedInstaller.exe (PC-IT-01) initiated...

How It Works:

• -FilterHashtable filters the log directly at the query level for a specific Event ID, instead of pulling every event and filtering afterward - far more efficient, especially on logs with thousands of entries.
• LogName='System' specifies which log to search - common options are System, Application, and Security, and the correct one depends on which ID you're looking for (most IDs are tied to a specific log, not universal across all three).
• Id=1074 is the specific Event ID being searched for - replace this with whatever ID is relevant to what you're investigating.
• -MaxEvents 5 limits the output to the most recent matches, since some Event IDs can have a large number of entries.