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[.NET General] Microsoft: your SQL Server 2005 Express Installer stinks!

Microsoft, are you listening? Others may have had a different experience, but I have been totally unsuccessful at working with the SQL Server 2005 Express installer. I have wasted far too much time trying to get it to work.  I'm giving up.  The nicest word I can find for your defective installer is "blecherous."

Yes, I have tried everything including attempting to run your special uninstaller, which failed for me also. I have manually uninstalled everything on the lists in your readme file. After satisfying all of your stated conditions, I have been unable to make your stupid installer work.  Not only that, but the creators of this installer didn't even feel it was necessary to let me, the user, know specifically why the installer failed, what old components or registry entries are still  blocking it, or what, exactly, I can do to get it to work.  Come on!  At least give the poor user some clue.

I have successfully installed (and registered) each of the other Express Editions, but none of them were able to install SQL Server Express, either. This is the second machine upon which I have tried to get SQL Server 2005 Express to install. Neither has given me any joy, only pain.

Also, if and when you somehow make it possible for me to install SQL Server 2005 Express at all, will I really need to uninstall all of the other Express edition software again before I can install SQL Server on my machine using your current braindead installation strategy?

Frankly I don't think I'm likely to do that; I'm probably more likely to simply use an alternative database.  Perhaps your installer is telling me to forget SQL Server entirely and to do all of my Express-edition-targeted C#, Web, and C++ work against other databases, like the new IBM DB2 Universal Database Express Edition, MySQL, Firebird, Ingres, and VistaDB, all of which I have correctly installed on my systems? Perhaps I should recommend the same to customers and clients?  Is that what you want?  Oh, I get it, you have decided to leave database management to the real pros and your SQL Server 2005 Express Edition installer is really a sort of viral un-marketing strategy!  Hmmmm.  Brilliant!

10 Comments

  • John,

    did you install any beta express editions before? Same happened to me, no chance to install the new sql server express edition.



    I 've done a new XP installation and everything went fine.

  • Frankly, you had a beta version installed. You knew the risks prior to installing the beta. Now that the RTM version doesn't want to play ball doesn't mean that the SQL Server Express Installer stinks.

  • Personally I will never work with MSDE or Express ever again. OK it is a free product, so I dont expect a plethora of tools to help me use it, but a simple config tool that allows me to set the security mode I want to use, along with setting the sa pwd would be nice. I heard that MS have finally released something to manage Sql Express but its too little too late. There are much more viable options out there now...oracle, db2, mysql....

  • Am I the only one who thinks the requirement to uninstall not only SQL Server Express but all other Visual Studio 2.0 Express software and absolutely everything else right down to completely uninstalling the very .NET Framework 2.0 itself prior to installing *one* component is ... just a little extreme?



    Isn't this fiasco - shall we say - "quite some distance" from that old promise of flawless .NET XCopy installation and the supposedly simple installations .NET was supposed to facilitate?



    In any event, even though I thought that requirement was very much over the top to begin with, I dutifully followed the instructions. They didn't work. I tried the uninstall tool provided as the official way to make sure everything was properly uninstalled and unconfigured. That tool didn't work, either. The last comment said, "we added tools to answer this very complaint." If you mean something other than the uninstaller that didn't work, what were those tools?



    Actually, I *would* go through the trouble of once again uninstalling all express editions and the .NET Framework 2.0 yet again if someone could guarantee me a way to clean everything up and start over - without losing all of the other software that exists on my machine. Reinstalling Windows used to be Microsoft's answer to every problem. It's not an option, today, when reconfiguring your system takes not hours but weeks.



    Don't misunderstand me. I *love* the .NET framework. I work in it and with it every day, creating solutions for important customers.



    What I do not love is how something like this can make the .NET experience painful and difficult for those who are just now approaching it, perhaps for the first time. The Express editions are not meant for experienced professional developers; they are targeted at beginners. I am currently trying to install and work with them not because I need them for my own daily work; I am checking them out to see what customers and new users might be experiencing. I have to say that it shouldn't be this hard!

  • Hi,



    The same thing happened with me.But I tried installing SQL Server 2005 Express Edition several times but failed.I installed all the other express editions after registration.But I could not install the SQL Server 2005 in all the cases:(



    Is there any solution for this.

  • I couldn't agree more with the comment about "What I do not love is how something like this can make the .NET experience painful and difficult for those who are just now approaching it, perhaps for the first time...". I am one of those people. After several hours of frustration in trying to correctly install SSE with Visual Web Developer Express, I finally gave up. My perception (at least) is that there seems to be too many technical prerequisites/requirements involved in order to be able to use the products clearly targeted towards novice users. Training from the MS site was excellent. Just gave up trying to install and use the apps. It shouldn't be so difficult for the novice user to install and use the apps.

  • same here, but with Office 2003 Professional edition, every time i install it on my laptop it gets so far and then rolls back and crashes on me, no reason why, no explanation, just crashes.

    tried other office disks on it and they're fine, just pro fails. sucks when you realise how much you spent on it.

    arghhhhhhh!!!!

  • I wasnt aganist microsft products but since last week I started advising no Microsoft Db at work and home.

    Reason pretty simple, Tried installing SQL express it failed, then I installed fresh OS and then tried SQL 2005 that too failed I tried that for 2 days and decided not to waste my time any where with microsft

  • I've tried the SQL Server Express edition but just because is a part of VS2005, and never worked with it.
    Now, I have the necesity of doing so, in a serious way and ...alas !
    I installed it with no problems at all. It works fine. But now, the problems you are saying above.
    Don't know why, when entering the Management Studio I couldn't connect. Dont ask me why!.
    I try to uninstall it and the uninstaller simply hangs up, no action at all, no CPU waste, etc. Just non-responsive.
    Try to reinstall it. The installer hangs in "scanning your system...". That was all. Then.
    I remove all things pertaining to SQL Express, files, registry.
    Try to install. The installer hangs the same way, at the same moment, "scanning your system..."
    Then I'm reading all your opinions/solutions, to try to solve the problem.
    As one mentioned above, next step: Reinstalling Windows. This is a Production Machine. So you can figure out all the prolblems.
    Best regards to all of you, partners in the same pain.

  • I compleatly remove SQL server Express ...and delete all MS SQL folders also finaly try to install it but fail...I thing MSSQL having many bugs....

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