HOW TO: Customize Office Setup Logging Options

View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q296604

SUMMARY

The Microsoft Office XP Setup program automatically creates log files in your Temp folder. The log files have names similar to the following

   Log file for           Log file name
   -----------------------------------------------------------------------

   Setup.exe              Office XP <edition> Setup(nnnn).txt

   Windows Installer
   (System Files Update)  Office XP <edition> Setup(nnnn)_Task(0001).txt

   Windows Installer
   (Office installation)  Office XP <edition> Setup(nnnn)_Task(0002).txt

where <edition> is the edition of Office that you are installing. For example, these files may be:

Office XP Professional Setup(0001).txt
Office XP Professional Setup(0001)_Task(0001).txt
Office XP Professional Setup(0001)_Task(0002).txt

The nnnn characters in the log file names are numbers beginning with 0001. They increment by 1 if you have to run Setup multiple times. Therefore, the log file with the highest number is the log file for the last time you ran Setup.

NOTE: You may have a Windows Installer log file only for the Office installation and not the System Files Update. Because the System Files Update installation is not required on most versions of Windows, a log file is not created. In this situation, Task(0001) instead of Task(0002) is appended to the Windows Installer log file for the Office installation.

You cannot modify the logging options for the Setup.exe log file. However, you can customize the logging options for the Windows Installer log file.

The following table lists the available logging options that you can use 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.

NOTE: Do not use the ! option unless the Office installation stops responding. For additional information about this problem, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

297107 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297107/EN-US/ ) OFFXP: Err Msg: Installer Terminated Prematurely Using ! Option

Back to the top

Use Default Windows Installer Logging

When you run Office Setup, some default logging options are already turned on by the Windows Installer (for example, vpiwae, as specified in the [Logging] section of the Setup.ini file). You can override these default logging options by using a custom command line or by modifying the Setup.ini file.

Note that verbose logging is turned on by default for Office XP installations, but not all logging options are included. If you want to use all available logging options, see the "Use Complete Verbose Logging" section of this article.

Back to the top

Use Complete Verbose Logging

If you want to create a very detailed Windows Installer log file, you can use the verbose (v and *) parameters for the /L switch. To do this, use the following command line to run Office Setup:

path\setup.exe /L*v c:\Officelog.txt

This command line creates the installation log files. File names will be based on the Officelog.txt name, which located on the root of your C drive. For example, the command line creates the following log files for an Office installation that requires the System Files Update:

Officelog.txt
Officelog_Task(0001).txt
Officelog_Task(0002).txt

NOTE: You can specify any path and file name for this log file.

Back to the top

Use Custom Logging Options

There are two ways that you can customize the logging parameters that are used to create a Windows Installer log file. You can use a custom command-line or you can modify the Setup.ini file.

Use a 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 files.

The following is a sample command line:

path\setup.exe /Lme! c:\customlog.txt

Modify the Setup.ini File

The Setup.ini file contains a [Logging] section that you can modify to create a custom set of logging options. To change the default logging parameters for vpiwae, modify the Type= line in the Setup.ini file. For example, change the Type= line in the following way:

Type=voicewarmup

You can also specify a path for your log files by creating a Path= line in the [Logging] section. For example, if you create the following entry in the [Logging] section

Path=c:\Logfiles

the Logfiles folder is created on the root of your C drive (if it does not already exist), and any log files that were created during the Office installation will be created in this folder.

If you modify the Setup.ini file in the Files\Setup folder of your administrative installation, you do not need a custom command line. However, if you rename the modified Setup.ini file, or it is located in a location other than the Files\Setup folder of your Office installation, 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.

Back to the top

Use 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.

Logging does not occur when you run Office Setup after Office has already been installed--for example, 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.

If you want to log either of these two situations, you can turn on logging by making the following changes in the Windows registry.

Quit any programs that are running.
Click Start, and then click Run.
In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
In Registry Editor, 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, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click Key.
With New Key #1 selected, type Microsoft, and then press ENTER.
With the Microsoft key selected, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click Key.
With New Key #1 selected, type Windows, and then press ENTER.
With the Windows key selected, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click Key.
With New Key #1 selected, type Installer, and then press ENTER.
With the Installer key selected, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click String Value.
With New Value #1 selected, type Logging, and then press ENTER.
With the Logging value selected, click Modify on the Edit menu.
In the Value data box, type voicewarmup, and then click OK.

NOTE: 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 Registry Editor.

When you turn on logging by using the registry, the logging file that is created is called MSInnnnn.log, where nnnnn is a random set of five alphanumeric characters. The file is stored in the Temp folder. Because a new MSInnnnn.log file is created whenever the Windows Installer runs, the use of this registry modification should be strictly controlled.

Back to the top