Forum Discussion
Windows 11 installation error
Now, the question arises how I came to know which driver to delete? I searched online for a few days to find that I can learn about it in the Windows logs. They are a bit difficult to access, but you can do it.
First, you need to go to folder options of Windows explorer and allow windows to show hidden files and system files. Then you have to go to "$Windows.~BT\Sources\Panther" and you have to find a file named "setupact.log"
Now it would be a big-**bleep** log file which you need to open up (it took around 1 minute to open completely). Go to the bottom of the log file to see which driver forced the installation to fail. For me it was a driver from a folder named "system32\driverstore\ WDSCAMxAMD64\wdscam.ini" or something like that.
Now all I did was to go to system32\driverstore and find the folder in which the cursed WD drivers were kept, and delete the folder permanently.
For others, the driver could have a name like PeePoo.ini or something; you can always google that stuff to see which company makes those drivers. Remember to look for paths of corrupt drivers at the bottom of the log.
But I faced a problem, that I could not delete the file because it was owned by the system. So you will have to right-click the folder and click security and then edit the settings to make yourself the owner, and give yourself full control of the bad boy. (You can see a video on YouTube for a detailed method to delete system folders.)
Lo and behold! My Windows 11 installed finally after weeks.
asking for a favor, please.
I found my setupact.log/ but I don't know what I'm looking for regarding a driver error. Thanks in advance
RRB
It's in chronological order. Open the file in Notepad and scroll allllll the way to the bottom, then just work your way up until you find things that look like error messages, and what drivers they mention.
How did you find out which driver forced the installation to fail?🤯
Scroll all the way to the bottom of the 'Panther' file mentioned above, "setupact.log" and scroll up. It's a huge file, may take a minute to get to the bottom. Then read it in reverse-chronological order until you see stuff that looks like error messages.
i have the setupact.log file open and it goes back to March 3rd 2025 (3 days ago), however, updates were unsuccessful today too.
Worked for me, In Jan 2025. But mine was an Intel ICS driver issue. deleted it, and installation done.
Hey man how did you find out which driver forced the installation to fail?
youareminean old post but it helped me with updating my Windows 11 from 23H2 to 24H2 today. Excact same error. Even down to the buggy Western Digital "wdscam" drivers causing it. You'd think after all these years they'd have fixed those, LOL. 🤦
Thanks for the guide! Where do I input that $Windows.~ etc."? Into that bar that shoes the location if the folders? If so, I've written it there but the only thing that happens is, a new empty window opens in the Microsoft browser... I also just tried searching for that log directly and I got a file that opened in notespad, but it doesn't seem to be that one... It's quite short and all the "initializations" happening there were successful.
- Thank you so much!!!! You save me from a full installation 😉
- Thanks muchly! Finally, after months & months of failures, Windows 11 installed. In my case it was also the Western Digital files. WD was also the culprit in a very similar problem in turning on Device Security, in that for that problem there were still WD Win98 drivers that needed to be deleted.
Followed your instructions as best I could, however, I have found multiple setupact files in the panther file and some have restrictions which i have overcome but none seem to show any errors at the bottom.
I have opened the largest file here and screenshot the bottom most part of it. Scrolling up changes the dates by a month so don't think that is relevant?
I'm actually doing the opposite and rolling back windows 11 to 10 for gaming purposes and don't particularly like the feel of 11 on a brand new laptop that came pre installed with 11 so no option to roll back.
