Install MSI with log from shell context menu

When authoring MSI packages, you frequently need the installation to be logged. Instead of repeatedly opening a console to type in msiexec /l* install.log /i foobar.msi, these shell context menu items may speed this process up a little. They do the same as ‘Install’ and ‘Uninstall’ but log everything (/l*) to PackageName.msi-install.log or PackageName.msi-uninstall.log, respectively.

Here are the registry entries:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\Msi.Package\\shell\\LoggedInstall]
@="&Logged Install"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\Msi.Packageshell\\LoggedInstall\\command]
@="msiexec.exe /l* \"%1-install.log\" /i \"%1\" %*"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\Msi.Package\\shell\\LoggedUninstall]
@="L&ogged Uninstall"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\Msi.Package\\shell\\LoggedUninstall\\command]
@="msiexec.exe /l* \"%1-uninstall.log\" /x \"%1\" %*"

And in case you have not yet configured ‘Run as’ for MSI files, you may want to add these as well:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\Msi.Package\\shell\\runas\\command]
@="msiexec.exe /l* \"%1.log\" /i \"%1\" %*"

MSI shell context menu (Save as and rename to .reg)

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About me

Johannes Passing, M.Sc., living in Berlin, Germany.

Besides his consulting work, Johannes mainly focusses on Win32, COM, and NT kernel mode development, along with Java and .Net. He also is the author of cfix, a C/C++ unit testing framework for Win32 and NT kernel mode, Visual Assert, a Visual Studio Unit Testing-AddIn, and NTrace, a dynamic function boundary tracing toolkit for Windows NT/x86 kernel/user mode code.

Contact Johannes: jpassing (at) acm org

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4 Responses to “Install MSI with log from shell context menu”

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1 nettellect February 4, 2008 at 3:05 pm

very informative post. this will really help everyone who is trying to log issues on install and uninstall operations.
thanks for sharing such a nice piece of information

2 Farrukh December 4, 2009 at 12:36 pm

Awesomley informative and useful :).
I work with MSI based installations and it is a very handy tip to work with.

Thanks a lot Johannes

3 sintaur February 2, 2012 at 10:49 pm

Msi.Packageshell\\LoggedInstall should be Msi.Package\\shell\\LoggedInstall.

Also the commands have to be REG_EXPANDSZ, for example, use this:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Msi.Package\shell\LoggedInstall\command]
@=hex(2):0,0

Then run regedit to put in the actual strings. If the reg entries are regular REG_SZ, the menu commands appear, but don’t work when you invoke them, at least not on Win2008.

1 More Context Menu Handlers for Everyday Use « JP’s Blog Trackback on August 5, 2009 at 5:21 pm

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