When you attempt to install/uninstall software, an app, an update, a hotfix et al on your Windows 11 or Windows 10 computer and the operation fails, you may receive the Windows Installer error prompt with the message stating Error opening installation log file. This post provides practical suggestions that can help you resolve the error on your system.
Error opening installation log file. Verify that the specified location exists and is writable.
What is an Install Log file?
As the name implies, the install log file contains records of all actions performed by the setup program and by other executable files related to the installation of a particular program or software on your Windows 11/10 computer. The installation log file can be particularly helpful if you encounter errors during the installation process as the file can be reviewed or analyzed to determine the best troubleshooting steps to take — to take advantage of this, you need to make sure that Windows Installer logging is enabled.
There are several reasons why you may encounter this issue which include the following:
- Windows Installer Logging is enabled.
- The Windows Installer engine can’t properly write the uninstallation log file.
- Timing issue when the Setup program (Setup.exe) runs, locking the log file in exclusive mode.
Fix Error opening Installation Log File in Windows
If you get the Error opening installation log file message when you attempt to perform an install or uninstall operation on your Windows 11/10 computer, then the recommended suggestions we have presented below should help you resolve the issue with ease.
- Restart the Explorer.exe process
- Temporarily disable antivirus software (if applicable)
- Manually delete the program installation log file
- General fix for Install/Uninstall issues on PC
- Resolve TMP and TEMP directories conflict issues
- Re-register/Reset Windows Installer service
Let’s see in brief detail how these suggestions apply! Before you proceed, we suggest you run an SFC scan to make sure there are no issues with the system files that might be the culprit.
1] Restart the Explorer.exe process
Restarting the Explorer.exe process is a known fix to the Error opening the installation log file when you attempt to uninstall any software via the Programs and Features applet in Control Panel. In this case, the error is triggered because Windows Installer attempts to write to the location specified below.
C:\Windows\System32
When the Windows Installer writes to the location, it addresses it as a file – but the proper behavior would be to write to the following location and file name:
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp\MSIxxxxxx.log
Read: Windows Installer not working properly
2] Temporarily disable antivirus software (if applicable)
During our investigation as relates to the issue, we discovered that this issue is known to occur on a computer that has certain antivirus software programs installed and enabled. In this scenario, the Setup program starts Msiexec.exe and tries to write to the log file before the program exits. However, some antivirus software may cause the log file closure to be delayed as the antivirus software is scanning files which consequently may cause Msiexec.exe to receive a sharing violation when it tries to access the Setup.log file.
So, in this case, to see if you can resolve or rather work around the issue, you can temporarily disable your security software, then try installing/uninstalling the software throwing the error. If successful, then you can re-enable your antivirus solution. If not, continue with the next fix.
3] Manually delete the program installation log file
For this fix, you can try to manually remove the INSTALL log file from the application’s directory – sometimes a log file is already present with the proper file names and if the Windows Installer doesn’t replace the existing installation log file, you may encounter the error. To manually delete the program installation log file, simply navigate to the program installation folder on your local disk and cut/paste the file named INSTALL.txt to some other directory (like the Desktop). If afterward, you’re still unable to install or uninstall the program as the case may be, you can proceed with the next fix.
Read: Fix Installer encountered an error
4] General fix for Install/Uninstall issues on PC
You can see if any of the suggestions contained in the post Cannot install or uninstall programs in Windows 11/10 helps you resolve the issue. In addition, you can run the program native uninstaller in case the error occurs when you try to uninstall a program.
When you uninstall a program natively in Windows via the Settings app or Control Panel, it might not always launch the application’s native uninstaller application. You can find the application’s uninstaller named uninstall.exe file usually located in the program installation directory — you need to run the executable file and follow the on-screen instructions. Ensure you’re logged in as admin on the computer or run the executable file with admin privilege by right-clicking the file and then selecting Run as administrator from the context menu.
Apart from the program uninstaller, you can use any of the third-party Uninstaller Software for Windows 11/10 to clean uninstall any program by removing all residual files.
5] Resolve TMP and TEMP directories conflict issues
This error may occur if the TMP and TEMP directories of the file are different as the Windows Installer will write to TMP but when it will try to read them using the attribute of TEMP. So, in this case, you can attempt to resolve the TMP and TEMP directories conflict by referring to the values of both in the same direction. To perform this task, do the following:
- Open Command Prompt in admin mode.
- In the command prompt, run the command below.
set TEMP+%tmp%
Exit the CMD prompt once the command executes and then check if the issue is resolved. Otherwise, continue with the next suggestion.
Read: Error writing a temporary file, Make sure your temp folder is valid
6] Re-register/Reset Windows Installer service
This solution requires you to re-register the Windows Installer service. At the command prompt, type the following, and then press Enter after each line:
%windir%\system32\msiexec.exe /unregister %windir%\system32\msiexec.exe /regserver %windir%\syswow64\msiexec.exe /unregister %windir%\syswow64\msiexec.exe /regserver
If re-registering the Windows Installer service fails to resolve the issue, it’s likely the Windows Installer registry settings are corrupted or configured incorrectly.
In this case, you can reset the Windows Installer service settings in the Windows registry. Since this is a registry operation, it is recommended that you back up the registry or create a system restore point as necessary precautionary measures. Once done, you can proceed as follows:
- Download the Reset_msiserver zip file from our servers.
- Unzip the archive package.
- Double-click the Reset_msiserver.reg file to merge it to the Windows Registry.
- If prompted, click on Run > Yes (UAC) > Yes > OK to approve the merge.
- You can now delete the .reg file if you like.
We hope this helps.
How do I find installation logs?
You can find and view the Windows Setup event logs via Event Viewer > Windows Logs > System. In the Actions pane, click Open Saved Log and then locate the Setup. etl file. By default, this file is available in the %WINDIR%\Panther directory. To open and read a log file in Windows, since .log is a plain text extension, you can use any text editing software like Notepad, Notepad++, Microsoft Word, etc. Many advanced users prefer Notepad++ because of its built-in features that make log reading easier.
Now read: There is a problem with this Windows Installer package.
