Software Deployment

Enable the MSI Logging Group Policy. See this post http://itninja.com/question/activesync-4.5-via-group-policy&mpage=1&key=MSI%2CLogging%2CGroup%2CPolicy紈 for details

working fine but log file is not getting created

Thanks for the response.

Even i m aware of setting the Group Policy, but since the application is going to be installed independently in different user's machine(not by Group policy), i believe it is not possible.

Is there any other way to achieve this? Pls Correct me if i am wrong?

Thanks.

but since the application is going to be installed independently in different user's machine(not by Group policy), i believe it is not possible.

To add to my above post, I need to install my application in both XP and Vista, so i believe MsiLogging property would not help me.

Thanks

ORIGINAL: vijayakumar

but since the application is going to be installed independently in different user's machine(not by Group policy), i believe it is not possible.

To add to my above post, I need to install my application in both XP and Vista, so i believe MsiLogging property would not help me.The logging policy has nothing to with Group Policy deployment: it is a *machine* policy. Also, you're now saying that you want to log the install not the uninstall.

And why do you think adding Vista to the mix would mean that logging wouldn't work? Windows Installer is the same on both platforms (save for the Vista engine being v4, IIRC)

has nothing to

Hello VBScab,

Thanks for your quick response.

I read that MsiLogging property requires Windows Installer 4.0 or later. So, I believe this property will only work in Vista. But i need my appl. to be installed in both XP and Vista.

I need to create log file when uninstalling from ARP.

Users will install the application in their own machine independently. In that case how would we set up the machine policy(that is, how can i create the registy entry? Will VB Script help for this?)

Thanks.

Who said anything about a property? Let me make this simple. Take this:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer]
"Logging"="voicewarmup"
- Paste it into a file and save it as a .REG file
- Double-click that .REG file on the target machine
- Clear all files from %TEMP%
- Run the uninstall
- Use the DOS FIND command to locate which log file is connected with the uninstall (MSI logging logs ALL MSI activity, including advertisements, so they'll probably be more than one log file...):
. FIND /C /I "name_of_your_MSI" MSI*.LOG

- Remember to disable the policy when you're done, by setting the 'Logging' value to an empty string, or removing the registry entry altogether.

Hi VBScab,

Thanks for ur detailed reply.

Sorry if i am not clear in explaining my problem..

'Remember to disable the policy when you're done, by setting the 'Logging' value to an empty string, or removing the registry entry altogether. '

- This is what i was trying to ask. I would require to create the log file even when the user uninstalls the application in his machine.

When the user buys the software and installs the application in his machine, and if he uninstalls the application, i need to create an uninstall log file in that situation.

My question is how can we acheive this without adding the machine policy in the customer's machine?

Hope i m clear in explaining. Thanks.

Finally...

There is no built-in mechanism to do what you want. The only way I can think of achieving what you want is to create a file and registry snapshot before the uninstall starts then another on completion and then create a difference report. You would either need to build such a snapshot tool from scratch or license one from another vendor.

The lightweight snapshot tool I use, the Ziff-Davis utility In Control *used to* be bundled with Delphi source code which you may be able to adapt for your own purposes. I'm not familiar with the licensing of that code, however.

BTW, if your package is destined to be used outside of your company, I'd advise you to avoid using the root of the C: drive for logs. Apart from any other consideration, users are unlikely to have write access to that area.

Oh..

Thanks for the quick replies. So, it seems that my problem cannot be fixed without any third party tools.

Also, as u suggested i will not be writing my log files in the root drive. Just for the sake of explaining i mentioned it as 'C:' drive. Usually i will write the log file in %temp% folder.

I need to explore this and get aproval.

Thanks for ur suggestions.