Setup
The first thing I do with an MSI log.
If you've dealt with the Windows Installer at all, you know the fastest way to figure out what went wrong is to look at a verbose log file. The normal log file doesn't provide enough information to really diagnose things going wrong, so I always generate a verbose log file.
Generate a verbose log file like so:
msiexec /l*v i.txt /i path\to\the.msi
Then I open “i.txt” in notepad.exe and search for “value 3”. Yep, the magic is “value 3”. Value space three. Let me repeat that:
value 3
Basically, the Windows Installer spits out “value 3” when an action in the installation failed. So if you look up a few lines you’ll see the culprit. I bet it’s a custom action. <wink/>