SUMMARY
Office creates two log files during the installation
process, one for Setup.exe and one for the Windows Installer. The log files are
created in your \Temp folder and have names similar to the following
Log file for Log file name
--------------------------------------------
Setup.exe Office 2000 <edition> Setup(####).txt
Windows Installer Office 2000 <edition> Setup(####)_MsiExec.txt
where
edition is the edition of Office you are
installing.
The #### characters in the log file names are numbers
beginning with 0002. They increment by 2 if you have to run Setup multiple
times. So the log file with the highest number is the log file for the last
time you ran Setup.
The logging options for the Setup.exe log file
cannot be modified. However, you can customize the logging options for the
Windows Installer log file. The "More Information" section of this article
describes all of the available logging options for the Windows Installer.
MORE INFORMATION
The following table lists all of the available logging
options that can be used in conjunction with the /l switch of the Windows
Installer.
Parameter Description
-------------------------------
i Status messages
w Non-fatal warnings
e All error messages
a Start up of actions
r Action-specific records
u User requests
c Initial UI parameters
m Out of memory
p Terminal properties
v Verbose output
o Out-of-disk-space messages
+ Append to existing file
* Wildcard, log all information except for the v option.
! Empty the logging cache, line by line, to the log file.
The default is to write to the log file when 20 lines
have been cached in memory.
Windows Installer Logging
When you run Office Setup, the Windows Installer has some default
logging options already turned on,
piwae, as specified in the [Logging] section of the Setup.ini file.
These default logging options can be overridden by using a custom command line
or by modifying the Setup.ini. You must unhide the Setup.ini file.
Verbose Logging
If you want to create a very detailed Windows Installer log file,
you can use the verbose parameter
v for the /l switch. To do this, use the following command-line to
run Office Setup:
path\setup.exe /l*v c:\Officelog.txt
The above command line will create the verbose log file,
Officelog.txt, on the root of C drive. You can specify any path and file name
for this log file.
Because verbose logging increases Setup times, you
should only use the above command line if you are having Setup problems that
can't be diagnosed with a default log file.
Custom Logging Options
There are two ways to customize the logging parameters used to
create a Windows Installer log file: use a custom command-line, or modify the
Setup.ini file.
Custom Command Line
You can use any combination of parameters with the /l switch. The
only requirement for this switch is that you also specify a path and file name
for your log file. When you use the /l switch on the command line, the default
Windows Installer log file is not created in the \Temp folder. The default
Setup.exe log file will still be created in the \Temp folder.
A
sample command line might look like:
path\setup.exe /lme! c:\customlog.txt
Modify the Setup.ini File
The Setup.ini file contains a [Logging] section that can be
modified to create a custom set of logging options. To change the default
logging parameters from
piwae, modify the Type= line in the Setup.ini file. For example, you
could change this line to read:
If you modify the Setup.ini at the root of your administrative
installation, you will not need a custom command line. However, if your
modified Setup.ini file is renamed, or in a location other than the root of
your Office installation, you must use a command line similar to the following
to reference the new settings file:
path\setup.exe /settings \\servername\share\CustomSetup.ini
where
path is the path to Setup,
servername is the server, and
share is the share on the server.
Turning Off Logging for the Windows Installer
To turn off Windows Installer logging, remove or comment out the
Type= line in the [Logging] section of the Setup.ini file. The log file for
Setup.exe will still be created in your \Temp folder.
If you use the
/l switch on the command line and do not use any logging parameters, the
default logging parameters
piwae will be used. You still must specify a log file path and name.
Maintenance Mode or Install on First Use Logging
WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious
problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft
cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry
Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own
risk.
When you run Office Setup after Office has
already been installed, or if Setup runs because a feature is being installed
on demand (it was originally set to
Installed on First Use), or you click
Detect and Repair on the
Help menu, no logging takes place.
If you want to log either
of these two situations, you can turn on logging by making the following
changes in the registry:
- Quit any programs that are running.
- Click Start, and click Run. In Open, type regedit and click OK.
- In the Registry Editor, find and select the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software
- On the Edit menu, point to New and then click Key.
- With New Key #1 selected, type Policies and then press
ENTER.
- With the Policies key selected, on the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Key.
- With New Key #1 selected, type Microsoft and then press
ENTER.
- With the Microsoft key selected, on the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Key.
- With New Key #1 selected, type Windows and then press
ENTER.
- With the Windows key selected, on the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Key.
- With New Key #1 selected, type Installer and then press
ENTER.
- With the Installer key selected, on the Edit menu, point to New, and then click String Value.
- With New Value #1 selected, type Logging and then press
ENTER.
- With the Logging value selected, on the Edit menu, click Modify.
- In the Value data box, type
voicewarmup and click OK.
You can use other combinations of logging options in
the Value data box. However, do not include l from the /l logging switch,
because that is only used on the command line. Also, do not use the + or *
logging options, because they do not work in this scenario. - Quit the Registry Editor.
When you turn on logging via the registry, the logging file
that is created is called MSI#####.log, where ##### is a random set of 5
alphanumeric characters. The file is stored in the \Temp folder. Because a new
MSI#####.log file is created anytime the Windows Installer is run, the use of
this registry modification should be strictly controlled.
If you
click
Detect and Repair on the
Help menu in any Office program, logging is not turned on. To log this
procedure, use the steps to modify the registry provided earlier in this
article.