Visual Studio and .NET Framework setup log collection tool

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I previously wrote about a log collection tool that will automatically gather and cab up Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 log files to make it easier to troubleshoot installation issues.  The folks who created this tool have posted an updated version at https://go.microsoft.com/?LinkId=8967043.

In addition to gathering and cabbing the log files listed in this blog post, the updated version of the tool also contains the following new functionality:

  • It gathers some additional types of log files to help troubleshooting some more types of setup failures
  • It gathers a list of installed MSI-based products on the system using logic that is mostly the same as the logic performed by the MsiInv tool
  • It uses the MsInfo tool to gather some hardware and OS version information about the computer to aid in troubleshooting

As a reminder from my previous blog post, here is information about where to download the log collection tool, how to use it, and where the output from the tool is created:

The tool can be downloaded from https://go.microsoft.com/?LinkId=8967043.  It is a Win32 console application, so you can extract it from the zip file and double-click on it to run it.  It will create a file named %temp%\vslogs.cab on your system after it has gathered all of the log files.

Note - after the tool finishes running, you can get to your %temp% folder to find the file vslogs.cab by clicking on the Start menu, choosing Run, typing %temp% and clicking OK.

<update date="6/2/2008"> Updated link to the log collection tool to point to the most up-to-date version. </update>

<update date="8/12/2009"> Fixed broken link to the log collection tool. </update>

<update date="3/1/2011"> Updated title to reflect that this tool works for all versions of Visual Studio and the .NET Framework - not just Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5. </update>