Where should my library deployed into Windows\System32 write logs?

Question

I've developed an IFilter - a library that is to be deployed into Windows\System32. One possible strategy for reporting errors occuring inside it is writing them to a log file. Where should I put that log file so that I don't have problems with permissions and this solution is Vista/Win2k8 acceptable?

Answer 1

Don't deploy stuff into System32, the Operating System owns that area. And for COM objects, you have no reason to do so. Put the log file in "%HomeDrive%%HomePath%\LocalLow".

Answer 2

Use the OS's own built-in logging capabilties - look at ReportEvent() and related functions. If you want, you can configure your event source to have its own .log file in the OS's Event Viewer, but that is optional.