Windows systems provide an event-logging facility as a common repository for logging events and other useful information. The event-logging facility also provides a user interface to filter, view, and back up the information that is stored there.

In versions of Windows earlier than Windows XP, applications with appropriate permissions could write to the security log and to the system log. In Windows XP and later versions, however, applications cannot write to the Windows Security Event log. Auditing messages from the database server are now sent to a log file, whose directory path can be specified using the onaudit utility. The default pathname is %INFORMIXDIR%\aaodir.

Any messages that the database server writes to its log file are also written to the Windows Application Event log.