LogFusion FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

How do I install the Free version of LogFusion?

LogFusion uses the same installer for both the Free and the Pro version. If you don't enter a license key during the installation, you'll get an automatic 30-day trial of the Pro features.

After the 30-day trial is up, LogFusion will automatically revert to the Free version. If you'd prefer to revert LogFusion to the Free version before the end of the trial, please follow these steps:

• Open the LogFusion Settings window
• Click the License Key tab
• Click the "Change to Free Version"
• Click Apply

After performing the steps above, LogFusion will revert to the Free version, with the Pro features disabled. After reverting to the Free version, you'll no longer receive message box prompts to upgrade to the Pro version.

Remote Event Logs

If LogFusion fails to connect to a remote server's Event Logs, please see the following article for the Windows requirements for viewing remote Event Logs: Remote Event Logs

Text Queries for Highlight Rules and Text Filtering

Simple Searching

A string without quotes, brackets, or operators (+, OR, -) will be treated as a "Match Any Word" search if multiple words are specified. To search for an exact string, you can wrap the string in quotes.

Advanced Searching

You can use +, OR and - operators to create more advanced search queries. Operators are not case-sensitive, but capitalizing them can improve the readability of your search query.

Operator: +

The + operator will only match if the text contains both of the query terms. Here are some examples:

Match anything that has both cats and dogs:
   cats +dogs

Match anything that has all 4 animals (cats, dogs, horses, cows):
   cats +dogs +horses +cows

Operator: OR

The OR operator will match anything that has at least one of your query terms:

Match anything that has either cats or dogs:
   cats OR dogs

Match anything that has any of the 4 animals:
   cats OR dogs OR horses OR cows

Operator: -

Using the - operator will match anything that doesn't have the query term in it. Here are some examples:

Match anything without the word dogs:
   -dogs

Match anything that doesn't contain dogs or cats:
   -(dogs OR cats)
   -dogs -cats

Using Multiple Operators

You can use multiple operators together, to form more complex queries. Here are some examples:

Match anything that doesn't contain cats, but does contain dogs, or contains fish:
   -cats +dogs OR fish
   ((-cats) +dogs) OR fish

Operator Precedence

When more than one operator is used in a query, - is processed first, then +, then OR. To change the precedence of operators, use brackets to separate different statements in your query, much like how you would in an arithmetic expression. Brackets may also improve the readability of your queries, and do not affect performance. Here are some examples:

In this example, dogs and birds will be evaluated first because + has a higher precedence than OR:
   cats OR dogs +birds

To change the meaning of the example above, use brackets:
   (cats OR dogs) +birds

The example below has the same meaning as the first example, but is much easier to understand:
   (dogs +birds) OR cats

You can use the - operator to invert the meaning of a bracketed query. The query below will search for all text that doesn't contain dogs, or doesn't contain cats:
   -(dogs +cats)

The query below will search for either cats or dogs, but not both:
   (dogs OR cats) -(dogs +cats)

Phrases

You can search for exact phrase matches, even ones that contain operators, by using quotes. Here is an example:

This example will search for the exact phrase "dogs +cars are great", the + operator is ignored because it is in quotes:
   "dogs +cars are great"

Escaping Quotes

To search for quotes within text, escape the character with a backslash (as shown below) to tell the query that you are searching for quotes, and not searching for a phrase.

The example below will search for "dogs" (with the quotes) in the search text:
   \"dogs\"

Error: "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135)"

Do you receive the error "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click on OK to terminate the application." when you try to start LogFusion? If so, make sure you have the Microsoft .NET Framework v2.0 framework installed. Please visit the LogFusion Download page to download the correct version of the framework for your computer.

How do I perform a Silent Installation?

Starting with LogFusion 3.0, we've added a bunch of useful options to the silent installer. Please click one of the links below to view the details for that installer type.

• EXE Installation
• MSI Installation

Important Note: When deploying the MSI Installer via Group Policy Software Installation, you absolutely must use the included MST (transform) file on the Modifications tab, otherwise the installation will never complete.

Why don't the line numbers in LogFusion match up with the numbers in my text editor?

By default, LogFusion will only load the most recent part of the file, to avoid performance issues when opening extremely large log files. This behaviour can be disabled by turning off the "Limit the number of bytes to load from a log file when first opened" option on the Log Settings tab in the LogFusion Settings.

Also note that LogFusion does not show blank lines, so if your log contains blank lines, this will also cause discrepancies in the line numbers.

LogFusion Command Line Options

Using the command line, you can launch LogFusion without previously opened logs, or you can specify which logs to open. The command line options are as follows:

LogFusion.exe /noloadlogs
Launches LogFusion without opening the logs that were open the last time LogFusion was closed.

LogFusion.exe "path to log file"
Launches LogFusion and opens the specified log(s).

Examples:

LogFusion.exe "C:\Logs\System.log" "C:\Logs\Application.log"
Launches LogFusion and opens C:\Logs\System.log and C:\Logs\Application.log, as well as the logs that were open the last time LogFusion was closed.

LogFusion.exe /noloadlogs "C:\Logs\System.log" "C:\Logs\Application.log"
Launches LogFusion and opens only C:\Logs\System.log and C:\Logs\Application.log.