Debugging a Win32 installer

deployexpert created the topic: Debugging a Win32 installer
To view or capture the debug output from a Win32 installer, hold down the
key immediately after launching the installer and until a console window appears.
Before exiting the installer, copy the console output to a text file for later review.
On some Windows NT systems, run the installer once with the key down,
resetting the scroll back buffer for the console window, then quit and run the
installation again.
If there are problems capturing the console output, try a slightly more convoluted
method (this will often be the case on Win9x because of the limited ability of the
console to capture output). First launch the installer and allow it to extract the
necessary files. Once it reaches the “Preparing to Install…” window, when given the
opportunity to choose a language or to go to the Windows “temp” directory, look for a
temp folder which starts with an ‘I” followed by many numeric digits (ex.
I1063988642). Be sure it is the most recent directory, by sorting the directories by
their “modified” date. Open the directory, there should be a file called “sea_loc”.
Delete this file. Now go back to the installer, click OK, and at the first opportunity,
cancel the installation.
Now go back to the directory inside the temp directory, where the file “sea_loc” was
deleted. There should be another directory called “Windows”; open it. There should be
an .exe file (most likely “install.exe”). There should also be another file with the same
name except it will have a .lax extension. Open it with a plain text editor and edit the
lines:
lax.stderr.redirect= AND lax.stdout.redirect=
to be:
lax.stderr.redirect=output.txt AND lax.stdout.redirect=output.txt
After these changes have been made, save the file and launch the .exe. When the
installation is complete there should be an output.txt file in the same directory as the
.lax file. The output.txt file will contain the same information as that generated to the
console.

Rajesh Kumar

I’m Rajesh Kumar, a DevOps, SRE, DevSecOps, Cloud, and Platform Engineering expert passionate about sharing practical knowledge, real-world experiences, and industry best practices. I have worked at Cotocus and regularly write about technology, travel, investing, health, product reviews, and digital marketing through my various platforms.

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