2: Interactive logon—This is used for a logon at the console of a computer. A type 2 logon is logged when you attempt to log on at a Windows computer’s local keyboard and screen.

3: Network logon—This logon occurs when you access remote file shares or printers. Also, most logons to Internet Information Services (IIS) are classified as network logons, other than IIS logons that use the basic authentication protocol (those are logged as logon type 8). Network logon are very common to Windows environment. They are only used after an account authentication such as user, computer, service has already taken place. For network logon, the process does not use the initial logon dialog box to enter the credentials. Instead, already established credentials for the account are used, or credentials are collected using in a different way. This is typically invisible to the user unless alternate credentials are used. Network logon confirms the users’ identification to the network service such as mapped drive on another server that the user is attempting to access (Microsoft TechNet, 2003). Windows logs logon type 3 for network logons such as accessing shared folders, printers, GPOs, and most logons to IIS.

4: Batch logon—This is used for scheduled tasks. When the Windows Scheduler service starts a scheduled task, it first creates a new logon session for the task, so that it can run in the security context of the account that was specified when the task was created.

5: Service logon—This is used for services and service accounts that log on to start a service. When a service starts, Windows first creates a logon session for the user account that is specified in the service configuration.

7: Unlock—This is used whenever you unlock your Windows machine.

8: Network clear text logon—This is used when you log on over a network and the password is sent in clear text. This happens, for example, when you use basic authentication to authenticate to an IIS server.

9: New credentials-based logon—This is used when you run an application using the RunAs command and specify the /netonly switch. When you start a program with RunAs using /netonly, the program starts in a new logon session that has the same local identity (this is the identity of the user you are currently logged on with), but uses different credentials (the ones specified in the runas command) for other network connections. Without /netonly, Windows runs the program on the local computer and on the network as the user specified in the runas command, and logs the logon event with type 2.

10: Remote Interactive logon—This is used for RDP-based applications like Terminal Services, Remote Desktop or Remote Assistance.

11: Cached Interactive logon—This is logged when users log on using cached credentials, which basically means that in the absence of a domain controller, you can still log on to your local machine using your domain credentials. Windows supports logon using cached credentials to ease the life of mobile users and users who are often disconnected.