#!perl

use strict;
use Win32::EventLog;

# open the System event log 
my $log = new Win32::EventLog("Application") 
	or die "Unable to open application log:$^En"; 

my $SupposedCount = 0;
my $ActualCount = 0;

#populate the Supposed Count
$log->GetNumber($SupposedCount);

# Now populate the ACTUAL count of events!
while ($log->Read((EVENTLOG_SEQUENTIAL_READ|EVENTLOG_BACKWARDS_READ),1, my $entry)) { 
	$ActualCount++;
}

print "Supposed Count: $SupposedCount\n";
print "Actual Count: $ActualCount\n";

##</code><code>##

---------------------
C:\>perl events.pl
Supposed Count: 26382
Actual Count: 1261
-------------------