Reading Applications and services log - vb.net

Question

I want to read a custom event log which is stored under Applications and services log section in Windows Eventlog.
Unfortunately when calling the Log according to its naming properties I receive an error message that the log cannot be found.
Ulitmately I try read event details from events with a specific ID but first I need to able to access the log.
This is the code that I have so far:
Imports System
Imports System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader
Public Class Form1
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim query As New EventLog("Logname as per Properties", System.Environment.MachineName)
Dim elEventEntry As System.Diagnostics.EventLogEntry
Dim nmbr As Integer = query.Entries.Count
MsgBox(nmbr)
End Sub
End Class
This is the structure in the eventlog (I want to read the blue highlighted part)
Anybody any idea how to determine the correct log name?
Thx & BR
Daniel

Answer 1

For many of the event logs, you need to use an EventLogQuery.
As an example, if you wanted to query the "Setup" event log to count the number of entries with an EventID of 1, you could do this:
Imports System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader
Module Module1
Sub Main()
Dim query As New EventLogQuery("Setup", PathType.LogName, "*[System/EventID=1]")
Dim nEvents = 0
Using logReader = New EventLogReader(query)
Dim eventInstance As EventRecord = logReader.ReadEvent()
While Not eventInstance Is Nothing
nEvents += 1
eventInstance = logReader.ReadEvent()
End While
End Using
Console.WriteLine(nEvents)
Console.ReadLine()
End Sub
End Module
You can see the names of the items to query by looking at the XML for an event in Windows Event Viewer.
The Using construct makes sure that the EventLogReader is properly disposed of after it's been used.
Further information: How to: Access and Read Event Information (from Microsoft).