diff --git a/backend/src/main/resources/application.yml b/backend/src/main/resources/application.yml
index f65764c0..e006d6c1 100644
--- a/backend/src/main/resources/application.yml
+++ b/backend/src/main/resources/application.yml
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ openrouter:
 
 logging:
   file:
-    name: ${LOG_FILE:log.txt}
+    name: ${LOG_FILE:logs/app.log}
   level:
     com.petshop: ${LOG_LEVEL:INFO}
     org.springframework.security: ${LOG_LEVEL_SECURITY:WARN}
diff --git a/desktop/src/main/java/org/example/petshopdesktop/controllers/ActivityLogController.java b/desktop/src/main/java/org/example/petshopdesktop/controllers/ActivityLogController.java
index 3d59934d..02bf0ce3 100644
--- a/desktop/src/main/java/org/example/petshopdesktop/controllers/ActivityLogController.java
+++ b/desktop/src/main/java/org/example/petshopdesktop/controllers/ActivityLogController.java
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import org.example.petshopdesktop.api.endpoints.ActivityLogApi;
 import org.example.petshopdesktop.util.ActivityLogger;
 import org.example.petshopdesktop.util.TableViewSupport;
 
+import java.time.LocalDate;
 import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
 import java.util.List;
 
@@ -86,6 +87,8 @@ public class ActivityLogController {
 
         filteredLogs = new FilteredList<>(activityLogs, a -> true);
         TableViewSupport.bindSortedItems(tvActivityLogs, filteredLogs);
+        dpStart.setValue(LocalDate.now().minusDays(30));
+        dpEnd.setValue(LocalDate.now());
         loadLogs();
     }
 
diff --git a/desktop/src/main/resources/org/example/petshopdesktop/modelviews/activity-log-view.fxml b/desktop/src/main/resources/org/example/petshopdesktop/modelviews/activity-log-view.fxml
index 3249cae3..c474f8c9 100644
--- a/desktop/src/main/resources/org/example/petshopdesktop/modelviews/activity-log-view.fxml
+++ b/desktop/src/main/resources/org/example/petshopdesktop/modelviews/activity-log-view.fxml
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@
             </children>
         </HBox>
 
-        <Label text="Showing most recent 2000 activity records" textFill="#64748b" />
+        <Label text="Showing activity for the selected date range" textFill="#64748b" />
 
         <TableView fx:id="tvActivityLogs" style="-fx-background-color: white; -fx-background-radius: 12;" VBox.vgrow="ALWAYS">
             <columns>