To give Network Service read permission on the EventLog/Security key (as suggested by Firenzi and royrules22) follow instructions from http://geekswithblogs.net/timh/archive/2005/10/05/56029.aspx Open the Registry Editor: Select Start then Run Enter regedt32 or regedit Navigate/expand to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog\Security Right click on this entry and select Permissions Add the Network Service user Give it Read permission UPDATE: The steps above are ok on developer machines, where you do not use deployment process to install application. However if you deploy your application to other machine(s), consider to register event log sources during installation as suggested in SailAvid's and Nicole Calinoiu's answers. I am using PowerShell function (calling in Octopus Deploy.ps1) function Create - EventSources ( ) { $eventSources = @( "MySource1" , "MySource2" ) foreach ( $sour