Software Deployment

Hey Pack,

Have you tried looking at the msi log file in your temp directory? That's usually where I start first.

ORIGINAL: Estes
Have you tried looking at the msi log file in your temp directory? ...advice which presume that the OP has the MSI Logging policy enabled, of course. This isn't something which is on by default, or something that one would want to leave permanently on because a user's local drive would pretty soon be full of MSI[blah].LOG files, because the MSI Logging policy logs EVERYTHING, including advertisements.

So, yes, the first stage is to enable that policy. It's probably quickest to apply it to one machine at first whilst testing. Easiest route is to merge in this .REG:
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer]
"Logging"="voicewarmup" Logs end up in %TEMP%, prefixed 'MSI' and named with a 4- to 6-character alphanumeric name and .LOG extension. I always use the DOS FIND utility to seek out which file belongs to the MSI I'm interested in, as it's a lot quicker than Windows Search:

FIND /C /I "text to search for" MSI*.LOG

where "text to search for" is the name of the MSI in full.

Next, does GPRESULT show that the policy got applied successfully?
Next, is the user's DC properly synchronised with the DC where the policy was defined (if you recently changed the policy)? At my current client, we frequently have to use GPUPDATE /FORCE to ensure that users/machines have a policy applied and even then we have to wait, sometimes up to 30 minutes, before THAT'S successful. From my experience here, I'm not a big fan of GPO deployment. It just seems so....wing-and-prayer. Still, the client's too cheap to go for a proper system and we're stuck with it so...

When your testing is complete, don't forget to turn off logging.