Recipe 16.18. Enabling Windows Installer Logging

Problem

You are experiencing installation problems with an application and want to troubleshoot the cause.

Solution

Using the Registry

To enable Windows Installer logging, set the following Registry value:

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer Value Name: Logging Value Type: REG_SZ Value Data: voicewarmup

See the Discussion for more on what the value data means.

Using Group Policy

You can enable Windows Installer logging via Group Policy with the following setting:

\Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\ Windows Installer\Logging

Discussion

If the installation program you are using is MSI-based (i.e., has a .msi extension), you can enable additional logging to troubleshoot issues during installation. After you enable logging, a log file is created each time you attempt a MSI installation in the %temp% directory (e.g., C:\Documents and Settings\rallen\Local Settings\Temp). These log files start with msi and have a .log extension. If there are multiple files like this in your temp directory, you may want to sort the output by timestamp to determine the most recent one.

Disable Windows Installer logging when you no longer need it. Keeping it enabled causes a log file to be written every time an application is installed or uninstalled and may impact system performance.

The Registry value data that we showed you should enter was voicewarmup. This may have seemed like a strange thing to enter for logging options, but it is actually quite logical. Each letter in voicewarmup represents a particular type of event or action or information that Windows Installer will log. The combination of letters in voicewarmup represents all the options you can set. You can, of course, use a subset if you like. For example, you could just use the letters "cewp" if you wanted. How do you know what each letter represents? Table 16-1 has the complete listing.

Table 16-1. Logged events in Windows Installer

Option	Description
v	Log 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 actions
r	Log action-specific records
m	Log out-of-memory or fatal exit information
u	Log user requests
p	Log terminal properties
+	Append to an exiting log file
!	Flush each line to the log as it is written

See Also

MS KB 314852, "How to Enable Windows Installer Logging in Windows XP"