Introduction

GoldiLogs is a Windows desktop application for real-time viewing and searching of log files. It is designed for developers, system administrators, and support engineers who need to monitor one or many log files simultaneously — without the limitations of a text editor or the complexity of a full log-management platform.

Key Capabilities

• Real-time tail – the view automatically scrolls to show new lines as they are written to the file.
• Virtual scrolling – handles arbitrarily large files by only loading the visible lines into memory.
• Multiple logs & groups – manage any number of log files organised into collapsible, colour-coded groups.
• Powerful search – plain-text or regex search with optional continuous tail filtering.
• Highlighting schemes – colour-code lines by content, making errors and warnings immediately visible.
• Windows Service integration – monitor and start/stop a Windows Service directly from the log panel.
• Configuration sharing – optionally store settings in a shared database so the same set of logs is available to a whole team.

System Requirements

• Windows 7 SP1 or later (64-bit recommended)
• .NET Framework 4.7.2 or later
• ~50 MB disk space

Installation & First Launch

Installing GoldiLogs

GoldiLogs is distributed as a Squirrel.Windows installer. To install:

1. Run the installer (Setup.exe or the .nupkg-based release package).
2. The application installs silently to your local AppData folder and creates a Start-menu shortcut automatically.
3. Launch GoldiLogs from the Start menu or the created desktop shortcut.

Auto-Updates

GoldiLogs checks for updates automatically on startup and can also be checked manually via Help → Check for New Version…. When an update is available a dialog appears showing the new version; click Install update to download and apply it. The application restarts automatically after the update is applied.

Stable-edition users can opt-in to beta versions by enabling Include beta version when checking for updates in the General Settings.

First Launch

On first launch GoldiLogs opens with an empty log panel. The application window starts maximised. Your configuration (log list, groups, settings) is saved automatically as XML and restored on the next launch.

Opening Log Files

Using the Open Dialog

Go to File → Open… (Ctrl+O) or click the Open toolbar button. A standard Windows file-picker opens; you can select multiple files at once (hold Ctrl or Shift while clicking). All selected files are added to the log panel.

Drag & Drop

Drag one or more log files from Windows Explorer and drop them anywhere on the GoldiLogs window. Each file is added to the log panel and the last dropped file becomes the active view.

Wildcard Patterns

When adding a log through the per-log settings dialog you can specify a wildcard pattern (e.g. C:\Logs\app-*.log). GoldiLogs expands the pattern and adds all matching files as individual log entries.

Loading from a Database

If your team shares a database connection string (configured in Settings), you can right-click a group and choose Refresh from database to load the group's log list from the shared configuration store.

Main Window Layout

The GoldiLogs window is divided into three resizable areas:

The vertical divider between the Log Panel and the Log View, and the horizontal divider above the Search Panel, are both draggable splitters — drag them to resize the areas to suit your workflow. The sizes are saved automatically.

Menu Bar

File Menu

Edit Menu

View Menu

Help Menu

Toolbar & Status Bar

Toolbar Buttons

Status Bar (right side of toolbar)

The read-only information bar to the right of the toolbar shows three items for the currently active log:

Log Panel

The Log Panel on the left side of the window contains a tree of all your monitored log files, organised into groups. Click any log entry to make it the active log shown in the Log View.

Log File Entry

Each log file entry shows:

• Thumbnail – a mini graphical preview of the log content (can be hidden in Settings → General → Show thumbnails).
• Follow-tail toggle button – click to enable/disable automatic scrolling to new lines for this specific log. Also accessible via Ctrl+T for the active log.
• Display name – customisable name (defaults to the file name). Double-click or right-click → Rename to change it.
• Service state icon – green (running) or red (stopped) dot when the log is linked to a Windows Service.
• New-data indicator ● – orange dot appears when new lines have arrived since you last viewed this log.
• Active indicator › – chevron on the right marks the currently displayed log.

Log File Context Menu

Right-click any log file entry to access:

Log Group Context Menu

Right-click any group header to access:

Log Panel Background Context Menu

Right-click on the empty background of the Log Panel:

Log View

The Log View occupies the centre of the window and displays the content of the currently active log file. It uses virtual scrolling, meaning only the visible lines are held in memory — you can open files of any size without performance degradation.

Navigation

Line Highlighting

Lines are coloured according to the active Highlighting Scheme assigned to the log (or the default scheme from Settings). Lines that match search results are additionally marked with the Search marker colours configured in General Settings → Markings.

Async Scroll Mode

Press F12 to toggle asynchronous scroll mode, which decouples the scroll-bar position update from the rendering thread. This can improve responsiveness on low-powered machines when scrolling large files rapidly.

Follow Tail

Follow Tail mode makes GoldiLogs behave like the Unix tail -f command: the Log View automatically scrolls to the bottom whenever new lines are appended to the file.

Enabling / Disabling

• Press Ctrl+T to toggle Follow Tail for the active log.
• Click the toggle button next to any log file in the Log Panel to enable/disable tail for that specific log independently of which log is active.

Monitoring Multiple Logs

Each log file has its own tail toggle. You can have tail enabled on all logs simultaneously — the Log View tracks the tail of whichever log is currently active, while the ● new-data indicator in the Log Panel shows which other logs have received new content.

Check Interval

GoldiLogs polls log files for changes every 250 ms by default. This interval is configurable in the application's underlying settings.

Searching

The Search Panel sits at the bottom of the window and is hidden until you need it. Open it with Ctrl+F or F3.

Basic Search

1. Open the Search Panel (Ctrl+F).
2. Type your search term in the Search: text field.
3. Click Search or press Enter.
4. Results appear in the grid below, showing the Timestamp, Line number, and Text for each matching line.

Search Options

Search Controls

Status Line

The status label to the right of the buttons shows real-time progress (e.g. "Found 150 matching lines (45%)…") and the final count when the search completes. If the regex pattern is invalid the label turns red and shows the parse error.

Saved Search Phrases

Three quick-access buttons to the left of the search field open flyout lists of saved searches:

Click any saved phrase to paste it into the search field. Right-click on the results grid to save the current phrase to the global or log-specific list.

Results Grid

The results grid shows three columns:

The first two columns are frozen and always visible when scrolling horizontally. Right-click any row to copy selected results to the clipboard.

Highlighting Schemes

Highlighting schemes apply visual formatting — text colour, background colour, bold, italic — to log lines based on text patterns. Use them to make errors leap out in red, warnings appear in amber, and informational lines recede visually into gray.

Opening the Editor

Click the Highlighting toolbar button or navigate to Edit → Settings… → Highlighting Schemes tab.

Creating a Scheme

1. In the Highlighting Schemes list on the left, click New scheme.
2. Type a name in the Scheme name field on the right.
3. Add rules (see below).
4. Click OK to save, or Cancel to discard.

Adding Rules to a Scheme

1. Select a scheme from the left-hand list.
2. In the Highlighting Scheme Definition area, click New rule at the bottom of the rules list.
3. Fill in the rule fields:

The Example preview at the bottom of the rule editor shows exactly how matching lines will look in the Log View.

Rule Ordering & Priority

Rules are evaluated in order from top to bottom. When a line matches multiple rules, the last matching rule wins. Use drag and drop in the rules list to reorder rules.

Deleting Rules and Schemes

• Click the red X button next to a rule to delete it.
• Click the red X next to a scheme name to delete the entire scheme. If any logs reference the scheme you will be warned before deletion; those logs will have their scheme assignment cleared.

Assigning Schemes to Logs

There are three ways a highlighting scheme can apply to a log file:

1. Per-log assignment: Right-click a log → Highlighting scheme → select a scheme. This overrides the defaults below.
2. Default scheme: Set in Settings → General → Highlighting → Default scheme. Applied to any log that has no specific scheme.
3. Append scheme: Set in Settings → General → Highlighting → Scheme to append. Applied after the assigned or default scheme, allowing shared cross-cutting rules (e.g. always highlight "Exception" in red regardless of the log type).

Groups & Organisation

Log files can be organised into groups — collapsible, colour-coded folders in the Log Panel. Groups can be nested to any depth.

Creating Groups

• Right-click on the empty Log Panel background → Add group.
• Right-click an existing group → Add group… to create a nested child group.
• Right-click a log file → Add group to create a group that contains that log file.

Renaming & Colouring

• Right-click a group → Rename group….
• Right-click a group → Color to pick from 11 presets or a custom colour. Group colours appear as a label strip in the Log Panel, making it easy to identify groups at a glance.

Expand / Collapse All

Use View → Expand all groups or View → Collapse all groups to open or close every group at once.

Sorting

Right-click a group → Sort to sort its children alphabetically by display name.

Database Sharing

If your team uses a shared database:

• Enter the connection string in Settings → General → Connection string.
• Right-click a group → Save to database… to publish the group's log list.
• Right-click a group → Refresh from database to pull the latest list.

This workflow allows the same set of monitored logs to be shared across a development team without everyone having to configure them manually.

Settings Dialog

Open the Settings dialog from Edit → Settings… or the toolbar Settings button. The dialog has three tabs.

General Tab

Font

Markings

The Markings section controls how two special categories of lines are coloured in the Log View:

Highlighting

Other Options

Highlighting Schemes Tab

This is the Highlighting Scheme Editor embedded in the Settings dialog. See the Highlighting Schemes chapter for full details.

About Tab

Displays the GoldiLogs title and tagline, the current version number, the edition type, and attribution for third-party components (AvalonEdit, MvvmLight, Xceed Extended WPF Toolkit, and others).

Per-Log Settings

Each log file has its own settings dialog, accessible via right-click → Settings on the log entry in the Log Panel.

Available Settings

Windows Service Connection

GoldiLogs can connect a log entry to a Windows Service, enabling you to see the service state in the Log Panel and start/stop it without leaving GoldiLogs.

Once configured, a green or red dot appears next to the log entry. Right-click the entry → Toggle Service State to start or stop the service.

Software Updates

Automatic Update Check

GoldiLogs silently checks for updates in the background on each startup. If a newer version is available a non-intrusive notification appears.

Manual Update Check

Go to Help → Check for New Version… at any time to trigger a manual check.

Installing an Update

When an update is found, a dialog shows:

• The new version number.
• A View release notes… button that opens the online release-notes page.
• An Install update button — click to download and apply the update.

GoldiLogs restarts automatically after a successful update.

Beta Versions

Licensed-edition users can opt in to beta releases by enabling Include beta version when checking for updates in Settings → General. Beta builds use a version suffix such as -beta02.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Context Menu Reference

Log Panel Background

Log Group

Log File Entry

Search Results Grid

Tips & Tricks

Workflow Suggestions

• Colour-code your groups. Assign distinctive colours to groups (e.g. red for production, green for development, blue for staging) so the environment is obvious at a glance.
• Use the Append scheme for cross-cutting concerns. Create a single scheme called "Common" with rules for Exception, ERROR, WARN, etc. Set it as the Scheme to append. That way every log always highlights critical patterns regardless of its assigned primary scheme.
• Save recurring searches. Add searches you run regularly to the global saved-searches list so they are one click away.
• Use Invert match to filter noise. If a log has a lot of verbose debug lines you don't care about, search with Invert match enabled and a pattern that matches the noise. The results show everything except that noise.
• Combine Search tail + Scroll to bottom when monitoring a live service. New matching events pop into view automatically.
• Drag the splitter to give the Search Panel more vertical space when you're doing an intensive investigation.
• Use regex for multi-pattern matching. The pattern ERROR|FATAL|CRITICAL matches all three severities in a single search.

Performance Tips

• Turn off thumbnails (Settings → Show thumbnails) if you have many log files open and notice the Log Panel is slow to update.
• Enable async scroll (F12) when rapidly scrolling through a very large file on a slower machine.
• Disable Follow Tail on logs you are not actively monitoring to reduce background activity.

Highlighting Scheme Design Tips

• Put the most commonly occurring rule last so it is processed last (lowest priority). Less frequent but important rules (e.g. FATAL) should be lower in the list so they are not overridden.
• Use a very subtle background colour (near-white or near-black) for informational lines and a high-contrast colour for errors. The goal is to make the eye land on errors first.
• The Example preview in the rule editor updates live — experiment freely until the formatting looks right before saving.

GoldiLogs v 1.1.2-beta02  ·  dancode software  ·  dancode.dk/goldilogs