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FolderRisk: Caution

Panther C:\Windows\Panther

Folder of logs and working files from the Windows installer (setupact.log, setuperr.log).

Updated on By AltF4 Formation

What it’s for

Panther is the code name of the Windows setup program. C:\Windows\Panther keeps the traces of the initial installation, first-boot configuration and upgrades: it is where you look to find out why a deployment failed or misbehaved.

What it contains

  • setupact.log and setuperr.log: setup actions and errors (see their pages for how to read them).
  • unattend.xml, the copy of the answer file used for an unattended installation.
  • UnattendGC, with the logs of the configuration passes (generalize, specialize) of an unattended deployment.

Risks and best practices

  • Do not delete them while a deployment is under analysis: without these logs a failure has no explanation.
  • unattend.xml can contain accounts, passwords or product keys in clear text or merely base64-encoded. Review it before sharing the folder, and clean it from images you distribute.
  • After a failed upgrade, also look at C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther.

Useful commands

Fenêtre de terminal
# Files in the folder and its first level of subfolders
Get-ChildItem "$env:windir\Panther" -Force -Recurse -Depth 1 |
    Select-Object FullName, Length, LastWriteTime


# Setup errors
Get-Content "$env:windir\Panther\setuperr.log" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

Folder contents

Folders 1

Files 2

Logs 2

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