See System Restarts in 3 clicks (after one-time setup)

Frustrating how it is so non-obvious to find when a Windows system has rebooted! I should just have to click a couple of buttons and have that information easily browsable.

The following setup, once complete, will make this info only a couple of mouse clicks away. On Windows 11: (the first and last steps are slightly different on earlier versions of Windows, but you should not have any trouble figuring it out):

1. open Event Viewer (which you can find via the Search box or magnifying glass in Windows menu)
2. expand the Windows Logs, right-click the System item, select Create Custom View
3. where it says <All Event IDs>, enter 41,1074,6006,6008 and click OK
4. A Save Filter to Custom View dialog will appear; name the view something like System Restarts and click OK.
5. (Optional) To group by day (very handy), right-click the new view in Custom Views, then View -> Group by -> Date and Time
6. On the desktop Task bar, while the Event Viewer window is still open, right-click the Event Viewer icon and select Pin to Taskbar.

Now seeing these restart-related events is a couple of clicks: click the Event Viewer in task bar, expand Custom Views, click System Restarts.

My Event Viewer now looks like this:

Eg, my last restart shows a User32 event type (1074):

for the following reason: Operating System: Service pack (Planned)
Reason Code: 0x80020010
Shutdown Type: restart

Whereas the previous event shows a Kernel-Power event marked Critical:

The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

Have fun!