How to Enable Verbose Logging in Windows 2000 GUI-Mode Setup

ID: Q243996

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

SUMMARY

Windows 2000 GUI-mode Setup logs information about the installation of devices and drivers in a log file named Setupapi.log. This log file is located in the %SystemRoot% folder. Setting the logging mode to Verbose can help you with troubleshooting the Setup process.

Note that this may be most useful in scenarios in which you may be installing a number of identical systems and the same problem occurs on any number of computers.

MORE INFORMATION

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys and Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

To set the Verbose logging level, you can add a value to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup

Value Name: LogLevel
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0xFFFF

You must add this value before GUI-mode Setup begins (just after Text-mode Setup ends). To accomplish this, follow the instructions located at the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/setup/setupapi.htm

You can have Setup add this value for you by following the steps below.

NOTE: This method requires that you modify the Windows 2000 installation files. If you do not already have a distribution share on a network server, you must copy the I386 folder from the Windows 2000 CD-ROM to a local hard disk. Make a backup copy of the Hivesft.inf file before proceeding.

On the distribution share or local hard disk containing the Windows 2000 files, locate the Hivesft.inf file in the I386 folder.

Using any text editor (such as Notepad), locate the following line in the Hivesft.inf file:

HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup","DriverCachePath",0x00020002,"%SystemRoot%\Driver Cache"

Below the line listed in the previous step, add the following line:

HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup","LogLevel",0x00010003,0xFFFF

NOTE

When you are done, the file should look like the following example. Verify this before saving the file to disk:

HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup","DriverCachePath",0x00020002,"%SystemRoot%\Driver Cache"
; added the following line
HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup","LogLevel",0x00010003,0xFFFF
; ends here
HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\BaseWinOptions",,0x00000012

Save the file and quit the text editor.

Any installation initiated from this share has verbose logging enabled in the Setupapi.log file. You can verify that this is enabled in GUI-mode Setup by pressing SHIFT+F10 to start a command prompt and using Regedt32.exe to verify that the value has been created.

Note that this increases the size of the Setupapi.log file. In most cases, it is approximately 4 megabytes (MB) or larger.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbenv kbsetup
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto