Instructions to enable Windows Installer Logging

Question

Synopsis

Solution

1. go to the Windows Start Menu
2. in the box type regedit , and then hit ENTER
3. in the Registry Editor window, navigate to the following registry key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftWindowsInstaller
4. right-click on the right pane, select New, then select String Value
5. enter the name Logging
6. double-click on the Logging key and then enter the value as voicewarmupxThe 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.  
7. After adding the new key in the registry, restart your Windows computer and retry the installation that caused the errorWindows 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.
8. In Windows Explorer, go to C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Temp.
9. The name of the new log file will be random, it will begin with "Msi" and have the file name extension as .log. You can further identify it by the date.
10. Note: After you are done with troubleshooting, you may want to disable this logging feature by removing the registry key you added earlier. If you leave it on, a new Msi*.log file will be created in the Temp folder every time you install or uninstall software.