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LogRisk: Caution

setupapi.dev.log C:\Windows\INF\setupapi.dev.log

SetupAPI text log for device and driver installation; essential for diagnosing a driver problem.

Updated on By AltF4 Formation

What it’s for

SetupAPI, the component that installs devices, has kept a device installation text log (setupapi.dev.log) and an application installation text log (setupapi.app.log) since Windows Vista. The first is the reference for understanding why a driver fails to install or why a device is not recognized.

What it contains

  • One section per device or driver installation operation: start, INF files evaluated, driver selected, file copy, device start.
  • The final status of each section, success or failure with the error code.
  • Driver store (DriverStore) staging operations.

Risks and best practices

  • Deleting it has no effect on how Windows runs, but you lose the history, so keep it until a driver diagnosis is over.
  • SetupAPI logs are always in English, whatever the Windows display language.
  • The detail level depends on the LogLevel Registry value. Raise it only for the duration of a diagnosis.
  • The log cites hardware IDs and serial numbers, so review it before sending it on.

Useful commands

Fenêtre de terminal
# Last lines
Get-Content "$env:windir\INF\setupapi.dev.log" -Tail 60


# Last sections that ended in failure, with the 12 lines before each
Select-String -Path "$env:windir\INF\setupapi.dev.log" -Pattern "Exit status: FAILURE" -Context 12,0 | Select-Object -Last 3

Format

ANSI text file. Each operation is framed by an opening line (>>>) and a closing line (<<<) that carries the exit status, with timestamps and indented detail lines.

Rotation and archiving

The file lives in %SystemRoot%\inf. Older versions are kept there as setupapi.dev_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.log.

How to read it

Find the time of the installation in question, then read the section that starts with >>> at that moment. Work backward from the Exit status line to the first lines reporting an error: file not found, signature, copy failure.

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