Summary

This article describes the steps to generate a verbose log file of the InstallShield Installation Developer Environment (IDE) itself or the InstallShield SAB itself.

Synopsis

This article describes the steps to generate a verbose log file of the InstallShield Installation Developer Environment (IDE) itself or the InstallShield SAB itself. This log can be useful to assist in troubleshooting InstallShield IDE initialization problems, etc.

Discussion

To generate the log file, perform the following:

For InstallShield 2009 and earlier

1. Open a Command Prompt Window.
2. Change to the InstallShield installation directory System subdirectory. For InstallShield 2009, the default path is:
   C:\Program Files\InstallShield\2009\System
3. Enter the following command:
   isdev.exe -verbose
4. The log will be located in the InstallShield installation directory System subdirectory ( i.e., C:\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield\2014\System). The name of the log file depends on the version of InstallShield:
   1. For InstallShield 12 and older, the log file name is: iside.verbose
   2. For InstallShield 2008 and newer, the log file name is: InstallShield.log

For InstallShield 2010 and later

A registry entry is used to control logging. The registry entry is:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\InstallShield\<InstallShield Version>\Professional]
"DoVerboseLogging"=dword:00000001

Where the InstallShield Version is:

• 16.0 for InstallShield 2010
• 17.0 for InstallShield 2011
• 18.0 for InstallShield 2012
• 19.0 for InstallShield 2012 Spring
• 20.0 for InstallShield 2013
• 21.0 for InstallShield 2014
• 22.0 for InstallShield 2015
• 23.0 for InstallShield 2016
• 24.0 for InstallShield 2018
• 25.0 for InstallShield 2019
• 26.0 for InstallShield 2020
• 27.0 for InstallShield 2021
• 28.0 for InstallShield 2022
• 29.0 for InstallShield 2023

For your convenience, we have attached .reg files that will update the Windows Registry to enable and disable logging. To use these .reg files, perform the following steps:

1. Make a backup of the Windows Registry.

2. Download the attached isdev_logging.zip file, and uncompress the *Logging.reg files to a folder on the same machine the InstallShield product is installed on.

3. Based on the version of InstallShield, execute the appropriate Enable Logging.reg file to enable verbose logging of the InstallShield IDE startup, etc. (By default, this type of logging is disabled.) For example, to enable logging for InstallShield 2013, from Windows Explorer, double click on the file labeled Enable_IS2013_Logging.reg.

4. When the InstallShield IDE is executed, a log file named InstallShield.log will be generated in the InstallShield product System folder ( For example, the file path for the log generated for InstallShield 2013 will be, "C:\Program Files\InstallShield\2013\System\InstallShield.log").

5. To disable verbose logging of the InstallShield IDE, based on the version of InstallShield, execute the appropriate Disable Logging.reg file. (For example, to disable logging for InstallShield 2013, execute the file labeled Disable_IS2013_Logging.reg)

Additional Information

If only the splash screen appears while opening the InstallShield IDE, try manually registering the file "scrrun.dll" in the Windows\System folder. Specific steps on registering a file manually can be found in article titled 'How Do I Manually Register a File?' at the InstallShield Consumer Central site.

For information on creating other types of log files, please reference the articles in the Related KB Articles section.