jackpatton wrote:

is there a better way to get to the system event log than using
eventvwr.msc at a c prompt?

And yet another way (in addition to the other suggestions) is to
right-click on the [My] Computer desktop icon and select Manage.

(Oops, see Char suggested this one up to right-clicking on the [My]
Computer desktop icon.)

Personally, I just enter eventvwr.msc in the Start menu's search box.