Specifying Whether Windows Installer Installations Should Be Logged

InstallShield provides support for the option to log installations run with Windows Installer 4.0 on a project-wide basis without having to use the command line or configure log parameters through the registry.

To specify whether your installation should be logged each time that Windows Installer 4.0 is used to run it:

In the View List under Installation Information, click General Information.

In the General Information explorer, click Product Properties.

To specify that logs should be created each time that the installation is run, set the Create MSI Logs setting to Yes. InstallShield populates the MsiLogging property with the default value of voicewarmupx.

To specify that logs should not be created each time that the installation is run, set the Create MSI Logs setting to No. This is the default behavior.

If you select Yes and the installation is run on a target system that has Windows Installer 4.0, the installer creates a log file and populates the MsiLogFileLocation property with its path. In addition, a Show the Windows Installer log check box is added to the SetupCompleteSuccess, SetupCompleteError, and SetupInterrupted dialogs. If the end user selects that check box and then clicks Finish, the log file is opened in a text file viewer or editor.

The Create MSI Logs setting applies to installations that are run with Windows Installer 4.0 on Windows Vista systems. Earlier versions of Windows Installer ignore this setting. The Show the Windows Installer log check box is not visible in run-time dialogs that are displayed on systems running earlier versions of Windows Installer.

If you selected Yes for the Create MSI Logs setting, you can customize the types of messages that are logged by overriding the default value of the MsiLogging property.

To customize the types of messages that are logged once you have set the Create MSI Logs setting to Yes:

In the View List under Behavior and Logic, click Property Manager.

Change the value of the MsiLogging property as appropriate. For a list of valid parameters for this property, see MsiLogging Property in the Windows Installer Help Library that is posted to the MSDN Web site.

InstallShield changes the value of the Create MSI Logs setting to Custom. Note that if you change it from Custom to Yes, any custom parameters that you defined for the MsiLogging property in the Property Manager will be overwritten with the default value. If you change it to No, InstallShield deletes any custom parameters from the MsiLogging property.