diff --git a/platform/platform-impl/src/com/intellij/idea/LoggerFactory.java b/platform/platform-impl/src/com/intellij/idea/LoggerFactory.java
index 2e83f2b757e1..3b195720213e 100644
--- a/platform/platform-impl/src/com/intellij/idea/LoggerFactory.java
+++ b/platform/platform-impl/src/com/intellij/idea/LoggerFactory.java
@@ -1,11 +1,10 @@
-// Copyright 2000-2019 JetBrains s.r.o. Use of this source code is governed by the Apache 2.0 license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+// Copyright 2000-2020 JetBrains s.r.o. Use of this source code is governed by the Apache 2.0 license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
 package com.intellij.idea;
 
 import com.intellij.diagnostic.DialogAppender;
 import com.intellij.openapi.application.PathManager;
 import com.intellij.openapi.diagnostic.Logger;
 import com.intellij.openapi.util.JDOMUtil;
-import com.intellij.openapi.util.io.FileUtilRt;
 import com.intellij.openapi.util.text.StringUtil;
 import com.intellij.util.text.CharSequenceReader;
 import org.apache.log4j.*;
@@ -18,24 +17,23 @@ import org.jdom.output.DOMOutputter;
 import org.jetbrains.annotations.NotNull;
 import org.w3c.dom.Element;
 
-import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
+import java.nio.file.Files;
+import java.nio.file.Path;
+import java.nio.file.Paths;
 
-@SuppressWarnings({"CallToPrintStackTrace", "UseOfSystemOutOrSystemErr"})
 public class LoggerFactory implements Logger.Factory {
   private static final String SYSTEM_MACRO = "$SYSTEM_DIR$";
   private static final String APPLICATION_MACRO = "$APPLICATION_DIR$";
   private static final String LOG_DIR_MACRO = "$LOG_DIR$";
 
-  private static final String DOCUMENT_BUILDER_FACTORY_KEY = "javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory";
-  @SuppressWarnings("SpellCheckingInspection")
-  private static final String DOCUMENT_BUILDER_FACTORY_IMPL = "com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.DocumentBuilderFactoryImpl";
-
   LoggerFactory() {
     try {
       init();
     }
     catch (Exception e) {
+      //noinspection CallToPrintStackTrace
       e.printStackTrace();
     }
   }
@@ -49,43 +47,43 @@ public class LoggerFactory implements Logger.Factory {
   private static void init() throws Exception {
     System.setProperty("log4j.defaultInitOverride", "true");
 
-    File xmlFile = PathManager.getLogFile();
-    if (xmlFile != null) {
-      loadFromXmlFile(xmlFile);
-    }
-    else {
-      configureProgrammatically();
+    String configPath = System.getProperty(PathManager.PROPERTY_LOG_CONFIG_FILE);
+    if (configPath != null) {
+      Path configFile = Paths.get(configPath);
+      if (!configFile.isAbsolute()) {
+        configFile = Paths.get(PathManager.getBinPath()).resolve(configPath);  // look from the 'bin/' directory where log.xml was used to be
+      }
+      if (Files.exists(configFile)) {
+        configureFromXmlFile(configFile);
+        return;
+      }
     }
+
+    configureProgrammatically();
   }
 
-  private static void loadFromXmlFile(File xmlFile) throws Exception {
-    String text = FileUtilRt.loadFile(xmlFile);
+  private static void configureFromXmlFile(Path xmlFile) throws Exception {
+    String text = new String(Files.readAllBytes(xmlFile), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
     text = StringUtil.replace(text, SYSTEM_MACRO, StringUtil.replace(PathManager.getSystemPath(), "\\", "\\\\"));
     text = StringUtil.replace(text, APPLICATION_MACRO, StringUtil.replace(PathManager.getHomePath(), "\\", "\\\\"));
     text = StringUtil.replace(text, LOG_DIR_MACRO, StringUtil.replace(PathManager.getLogPath(), "\\", "\\\\"));
 
-    File file = new File(PathManager.getLogPath());
-    if (!file.mkdirs() && !file.exists()) {
-      System.err.println("Cannot create log directory: " + file);
-    }
-
-    // Jdom is used instead of XML DOM because of https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-173468
-    // DOMConfigurator really wants Document
-    @SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
-    Document document = JDOMUtil.loadDocument(new CharSequenceReader(text));
+    // JDOM is used instead of XML DOM because of IDEA-173468 (`DOMConfigurator` really wants `Document`)
+    @SuppressWarnings("deprecation") Document document = JDOMUtil.loadDocument(new CharSequenceReader(text));
     Element element = new DOMOutputter(new JAXPDOMAdapter() {
       @Override
       public org.w3c.dom.Document createDocument() throws JDOMException {
-        String property = System.setProperty(DOCUMENT_BUILDER_FACTORY_KEY, DOCUMENT_BUILDER_FACTORY_IMPL);
+        String key = "javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory";
+        @SuppressWarnings("SpellCheckingInspection") String property = System.setProperty(key, "com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.DocumentBuilderFactoryImpl");
         try {
           return super.createDocument();
         }
         finally {
           if (property == null) {
-            System.clearProperty(DOCUMENT_BUILDER_FACTORY_KEY);
+            System.clearProperty(key);
           }
           else {
-            System.setProperty(DOCUMENT_BUILDER_FACTORY_KEY, property);
+            System.setProperty(key, property);
           }
         }
       }
@@ -100,8 +98,8 @@ public class LoggerFactory implements Logger.Factory {
 
     PatternLayout layout = new PatternLayout("%d [%7r] %6p - %30.30c - %m \n");
 
-    RollingFileAppender ideaLog = new RollingFileAppender(layout, PathManager.getLogPath() + "/" + "idea.log", true);
-    ideaLog.setEncoding("UTF-8");
+    RollingFileAppender ideaLog = new RollingFileAppender(layout, PathManager.getLogPath() + "/idea.log", true);
+    ideaLog.setEncoding(StandardCharsets.UTF_8.name());
     ideaLog.setMaxBackupIndex(12);
     ideaLog.setMaximumFileSize(10_000_000);
     root.addAppender(ideaLog);
@@ -119,4 +117,4 @@ public class LoggerFactory implements Logger.Factory {
 
     root.addAppender(appender);
   }
-}
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/platform/util/src/com/intellij/openapi/application/PathManager.java b/platform/util/src/com/intellij/openapi/application/PathManager.java
index 56e7bc3da009..e4f4464e0033 100644
--- a/platform/util/src/com/intellij/openapi/application/PathManager.java
+++ b/platform/util/src/com/intellij/openapi/application/PathManager.java
@@ -641,24 +641,4 @@ public class PathManager {
       return path;
     }
   }
-
-  @Nullable
-  public static File getLogFile() {
-    String logXmlPath = System.getProperty(PROPERTY_LOG_CONFIG_FILE);
-    if (logXmlPath == null) return null;
-
-    // If the property value specifies a file name rather than a path, look for the
-    // specified file in the bin directory (where log.xml was previously stored)
-    File logXmlFile;
-    if (logXmlPath.indexOf('/') < 0 && logXmlPath.indexOf('\\') < 0) {
-      logXmlFile = new File(getBinPath(), logXmlPath);
-    }
-    else {
-      logXmlFile = new File(logXmlPath);
-    }
-
-    if (logXmlFile.exists()) return logXmlFile;
-
-    return null;
-  }
 }
\ No newline at end of file