General
MSI installers run in two processes, CLIENT and SERVER. Essentially, from my understanding, CLIENT is the user facing version, SERVER is when you see the progress bar on the screen.
When the MSI installer executes an action it will return a code 0-4;
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 0 | action not executed |
| 1 | success |
| 2 | user cancelled |
| 3 | fatal error |
| 4 | suspended, waiting for a reboot |
Windows Log Utility viewer
Extract files from MSI
msiexec /a C:\absolute\path\to\msifile.msi /qb TARGETDIR=C:\output
Absolute means absolute, you need to have the entire file path from the drive letter to the file.
MSI Install Logs
Will create file in %temp%
Windows Event Viewer
Event ID: 11707 Will tell you the user and date/time the installer was run.