Log Expert

Log Expert is a small application whose purpose is to help you analyze log files. This Windows tool is built as a replacement for the tail program on Unix systems and allows you to visualize the tail end of a text file.

The portable running mode gives you the flexibility to copy the utility on any USB flash drives or other portable devices and run it on the target system without administrative privileges.

It does not write data in your Windows registry, so you may get rid of it by simply deleting the items that you have downloaded from the Internet. Running the utility implies only the opening of the executable file, as there’s no installation included in the setup.

Log Expert delivers a multi-tabbed layout that helps you keep track of multiple projects at the same time and easily switch between them.

Data can be imported in the working environment using the built-in browse button or drag-and-drop support. You may open a new tab with clipboard information.

Log Expert offers you the option to create bookmarks, export them to CSV file format, and jump to the next or previous bookmark. You can go to a specific line number, perform searches throughout the text, apply text filters, alter the encoding (e.g. Unicode, ASCII), and make use of highlighting options.

Columns can be split using different criteria, such as split every line into three fields (date, time and the rest of the log message) or split CSV files into columns. Plus, you can read and format XML log files written with Apache log4j. Each session can be saved to a file on the disk so you can import data for future adjustments.

Log Expert lets you change the font of the text, follow tail, ask for confirmation before closing tabs, show tail state on tabs using a custom color, select the preferred encoding, configure a set of external tools, install plugins, and define the default action when opening multiple files, namely load every file into a separate tab, treat all files as a single document, or ask what to do.

In conclusion, Log Expert proves to be a handy tail tool that comes with a decent feature pack for helping you perform searches, create bookmarks, and highlight data.