OFF2000: How To Customize Office Setup Logging Options

ID: Q230861

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Office 2000

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

SUMMARY

Office will create two log files during the installation process, one for Setup.exe and one for the Windows Installer. The log files will be created in your \Temp folder and will 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 will be numbers beginning with 0002 and will increment by 2 if you have to run Setup multiple times. So the log file with the highest number would be 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
+           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 filename for this log file.

Because verbose logging increases set up 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 filename 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

Modifying the Setup.ini

The Setup.ini 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. For example, you could change this line to read:

Type=icewarmup

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 is renamed, or in a location other than the root of your Office installation, you will have to 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; 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: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys and Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

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 enable 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, navigate to, 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 any combination of logging options and click OK. For example, set the Value to vicewarmup.

Do not include l from the /l logging switch as that is only used on the command line. Also, do not use the + logging option as it will not work in this scenario.

Exit the Registry Editor.

When you enable logging via the registry, the logging file that is created will be called MSI#####.log, where ##### will be a random set of 5 alphanumeric characters. The file is stored in the \Temp folder. Because a new MSI#####.log file is created any time 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 will not be turned on. To log this procedure, use the steps to modify the registry provided above.

Additional query words: OFF2000


Keywords          : 
Version           : WINDOWS:2000
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbhowto

Last Reviewed: July 8, 1999