I views a lot of log files and I always look for the functionality to use Tail for Logfiles with Windows “live” in a GUI.

Under Linux, this is very easy via “tail” and under Windows there are also several options.

My favorite tool is the CMTrace from Microsoft. This is available in every SCCM installation, but can also be extracted from an official download.

Simply unzip the file and you will find the CMTrace tool directly under \SMSSETUP\TOOLS\CMTrace.exe

An alternative Tail tool for Logfiles with Windows is LogExpert. You can find it on Github.

For a more professional solution with more extensive functions, you can use BareTail.

A solution I recently found is DisplayTool 2.2 for Windows 10 / 11 which is available here.

For the Commvault users among us, there is also GxTail. The Tail for Logfiles with Windows functionalities are particularly well adapted for Commvault, but I also be used for other log files.

Powershell Get-Content with -Tail for Logfiles with Windows

I use a Powershell command called Get-Content that does exactly what it is named for, because it gets the content of the file. This command has a flag or attribute called Tail that makes it equivalent to the Linux tail command.

Here is a simple tail command equivalent to the Windows PowerShell Get-Content command.

Get-Content .\directx.log -Tail 10

The tail command has an amazing feature that lets you monitor changes in real-time and view live logs! In this example I accomplished this by using the -f flag in Linux.

In Windows, I achieve this using the Wait flag and get a very good Tail for Logfiles with Windows experience.

An equivalent command to the Linux tail -f command in Windows PowerShell is the Get-Content command.

Get-Content .\directx.log -Tail 10 -Wait

In the screenshot, the cursor is at the end of the file and has not returned to the terminal to monitor or wait for additional lines!

The links to these tools and much more than Tail for Logfiles with Windows can be found here. I also maintain a German version here.