Windows Installer Help

Method 6: Enable Windows Installer logging

On your Windows computer, you can enable a logging service by making a few changes to the registry. The logs generated through this logging service help in diagnosing issues related to Windows Installer.

Warning: The steps discussed below require you to work with the Windows registry. You must be very careful while editing the registry because there is no undo option in Registry Editor and any mistakes in registry edits may render your PC unbootable. This is the reason why, it is recommended that you back up the registry before you make any edits to it

Steps to Enable Windows Installer Logging

1. Open Start menu, select Run, in the Open box type regedit , and then click the OK button.
2. In the Registry Editor window, navigate to the following registry key:
   
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer
   
   
3. Right-click on the right pane and then select String Value.
4. Provide the name as Logging.
5. Double-click on the Loggingkey and then add the value as voicewarmupx .
   
   The letters of the value “ voicewarmupx” have been so organized to make the value easy to remember. In reality, you can add them in any sequence. Each letter in this value turns on a different logging mode on your computer. The details for MSI version 1.1 are listed below:
   
   
   • v: Enable verbose output
   • o: Log out-of-disk-space messages
   • i: Log status messages
   • c: Log initial UI parameters
   • e: Log all error messages
   • w: Log non-fatal warnings
   • a: Log start up of actions
   • r: Log action-specific records
   • m: Log out-of-memory or fatal exit information
   • u: Log user requests
   • p: Log terminal properties
   • +: Append logged data to existing file
   • !: Flush each line to the log
   • x: Include extra debugging information in the logs
   
   
   Note: The flag “x” is available only on Windows Server 2003 or higher operating systems and MSI 3.0 redistributable or later versions.
   
   
6. After adding the new key in the registry, restart your Windows computer and retry to perform the installation that caused the error.
   
   Windows Installer will now monitor the installation progress log the details in a log file that will be created in the Temp folder. Although the name of this new log file will be random, it will begin with “Msi” and have the file name extension as .log.
   
   
7. To open the Temp folder to locate and open the log file, run the following command:
   
   %temp%
   
   The log file may help you identify the cause of the problem, and you may proceed with troubleshooting on basis of this diagnosis.
   
   Note: After you are done with troubleshooting, you must disable this logging feature by removing the registry key you added earlier. This is important because if you leave it on a new Msi*.log file will be created in the Temp folder every time you use the Add or Remove Program Control Panel tool. Eventually, this may lead to space and memory problems on the system.
   
   Steps to e nable Windows Installer logging with Group Policies
   
   To enable logging with Group Policies, you need to edit the appropriate OU or Directory Group Policy. To do this, perform the following steps:
   
   
   1. Open Start menu, select Run, type gpedit.msc to open the Group Policy Editor window.
   2. Next, navigate to Computer Configuration\ Administrative Templates\ Windows Components.
   3. Here, select Windows Installer.
   4. Double-click Logging, and then select Enabled.
   5. In the Logging box that is displayed, specify the options for the data you want log.
   
   
   After you specify this, Msi*.log file appears in the Temp folder when you repeat the installation process that created problems earlier.
   
   Note: To view information specific to enabling Windows Installer logging in Windows XP, open the following Microsoft Web site.
   
   http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314852