You can enable logging of Group Policy Objects by following one of the two methods listed below. The log file will be created in the %windir%\temp folder. To locate the Temp folder type cd %temp% at the command prompt. The name of the logging file is randomly selected. It begins with “msi” and ends with a .log extension, e.g. MSIef63.LOG.
Enabling Windows Installer Logging Manually
1. Start the registry editor, regedit.exe.
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer.
3. Create a New, String Value called Logging. You will notice that the type is REG-SZ.
4. Double-click Logging and enter voicewarmup for Value data.
5. Click OK and close registry editor.
The letters in the value data field can be in any order. Here’s what the letters stand for.
v - Verbose output
o - Out-of-disk-space messages
i - Status messages
c - Initial UI parameters
e - All error messages
w - Non-fatal warnings
a - Start up of actions
r - Action-specific records
m - Out-of-memory or fatal exit information
u - User requests
p - Terminal properties
+ - Append to existing file
! - Flush each line to the log
WARNING: The above change to the registry should be temporary only for troubleshooting. If you leave this value in the registry it will have adverse effect on system performance and disk space. Each time you use the Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel, it will create a new Msi*.log file.
Enabling Windows Installer Logging through Group Policies
You can also enable logging with Group Policies by modifying the appropriate Group Policy. Go to Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, and select Windows Installer. Double-click Logging and then click Enabled. In the Logging box, enter the options you want to log, e.g. vmeap.
According to Microsoft’s KB article Q223300 this only applies to Windows 2000/NT/Me/98SE/95. However, this also works for Windows Server 2003. If you have tried enabling the logging in Group Policy and can’t get it to work, use the manual method by modifying the registry as shown above.
Copyright ©2005 Zubair Alexander. All rights reserved.
