To be overwhelmed by information about what an MSI installer is doing, run the following from a command prompt:
msiexec /i ProductName.msi /L*v everything.log
In particular, the *v following the /L switch specifies to do verbose logging of everything the installer does.
Trouble is—which you know because I telegraphed the punchline—it’s often way more than you wanted. The MSI help topic “Command-Line Options” (or running msiexec /?) lists other, more specific switches that can follow /L. In particular, you can log just the properties like this:
msiexec /i product.msi /Lp properties.log
The output has just entries like this:
=== Logging started: 0/0/0000 00:00:00 ===Property(S): DiskPrompt = [1]Property(S): UpgradeCode = {HHHHHHHH-HHHH-HHHH-HHHH-HHHHHHHHHHHH}Property(S): ProductToBeRegistered = 1Property(S): SourcedirProduct = {HHHHHHHH-HHHH-HHHH-HHHH-HHHHHHHHHHHH} ... many more ...Property(C): DiskPrompt = [1]Property(C): UpgradeCode = {HHHHHHHH-HHHH-HHHH-HHHH-HHHHHHHHHHHH}Property(C): ALLUSERS = 1Property(C): PrimaryVolumeSpaceRemaining = 0Property(C): PrimaryVolumeSpaceRequired = 0 ... etc. ...=== Logging stopped: 0/0/0000 00:00:00 ===
Pop quiz: why do the client (C) properties appear after the server (S) properties?
And a tip: to see what properties changed or appeared between the (C) and (S) sides, run a command like this:
sort /+13 properties.log
The output looks something like this:
Property(C): ACTION = INSTALLProperty(S): ACTION = INSTALLProperty(S): ADDLOCAL = FeatureNameProperty(S): AdminToolsFolder = C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\ Programs\Administrative Tools\Property(C): AdminToolsFolder = C:\Documents and Settings\username\Start Menu\ Programs\Administrative Tools\Property(S): AdminUser = 1Property(C): AdminUser = 1
…and so on.
Similarly, to display just information about action starts, stops, and return values, use /Li. The log starts something like this:
=== Logging started: 0/0/0000 00:00:00 ===Action start 00:00:00: INSTALL.Action start 00:00:00: AppSearch.Action ended 00:00:00: AppSearch. Return value 0.Action start 00:00:00: LaunchConditions.Action ended 00:00:00: LaunchConditions. Return value 0.Action start 00:00:00: FindRelatedProducts.Action ended 00:00:00: FindRelatedProducts. Return value 0.Action start 00:00:00: ValidateProductID.Action ended 00:00:00: ValidateProductID. Return value 1.Action start 00:00:00: CostInitialize.Action ended 00:00:00: CostInitialize. Return value 1.... etc. ...
The MSI help topic “Logging of Action Return Values” describes what these return values mean.
I have no idea what the c and u switches do.
