Sometimes, when installing software that uses the Microsoft Windows Installer, it fails with some sort of cryptic error message. Enabling generation of the log file may give you insights to the reason for the failure and hope to resolve the issue.
To enable logging:
- Run regedt32
- Navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer
- Create REG_SZ with name "Logging" and value of "iwearucmpvox" (turns all logging on)
- Create REG_DWORD with name "Debug" and value of 2
- Download and run DebugView from Microsoft Sysinternals site
- Rerun the install
The debug view window will capture all MSI debugging information as it happens.
The log file itself will be created in the temp directory (ie, C:\Users\<account>\AppData\Local\Temp)
and will have a name like "MSIe9359.LOG".
Note that you can also change installer logging using the group policy editor (gpedit.msc).
The installer settings can be found at Computer Configuration - Administrative Templates - Windows
Components - Windows Installer.
Ref: Originally found on the TivoCommunity.com forum.