Error log message "ACTION FAILURE... See MSI log for details." does not specify the file name (315320)

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The Windows Installer log file

Visual Studio .NET Setup or Visual Studio 2005 Setup includes the default option to create a verbose Microsoft Windows Installer (formerly MSI) Setup log file for the Windows Installer-based portion of Visual Studio .NET Setup or Visual Studio 2005 Setup. After you select components from the Component Selection Tree and then click Install Now!, this file begins to log the setup process.

This installation log file can help you to determine the causes of any failures or warnings that occur during Visual Studio .NET Setup or Visual Studio 2005 Setup. This log also helps you to diagnose any problems that may occur when you first use the integrated development environment (IDE).

Setup creates the log file in the Temp directory (%Temp%) of the user who installs the application. The filename is "Vsmsilog*.txt", where the asterisk (*) is a random sequence of four alphanumeric characters. Setup creates this verbose log file by default. You do not need to set any other Windows Installer logging options.

Action failure

The failed action that the log refers to is a Windows Installer-based Custom Action authored by Visual Studio Setup. Such custom actions perform various setup tasks, and various environmental conditions may cause these actions to fail.

Troubleshooting a Visual Studio .NET or Visual Studio 2005 Setup Custom Action

Troubleshooting Custom Actions in depth is beyond the scope of this article. The following information pertains only to the methods specific to Visual Studio .NET Setup or Visual Studio 2005 Setup:

• Return Value 3
  
  This return value indicates that a Custom Action has failed. Search the Windows Installer log file for this return value string, and then examine a few of the lines prior to this value for more descriptive information about the custom action failure. The name of the custom action and any message returned appear in the lines prior to this value.
• User policy value 'DisableRollback'
  
  Some actions may not exit with an error code and return a "Return Value 3" line when they fail. The string "User policy value 'DisableRollback'" appears in the Windows Installer log file at least twice if an error occurs that causes rollback to fire. The first entry appears when Setup invokes the installer. The second entry appears when a rollback is called due to a cancellation or fatal error. The lines prior to this entry provide information about the failure, including the name of the custom action and any message that is returned.

For more information about Windows Installer Custom Actions, see the following Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) article: