Installation Notes: SQL Server 2005 on Windows Vista with VS2008

This was a humongous pain for me and took quite a lot of my time so just noting down a few points for self reference. Previously, I have Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 installed on my Vista machine and they worked just fine. Now we are upgrading to VS2008, I uninstalled everything related to VS2005 then reinstall SQL Server 2005 and things got screwed up. Check out the failure list that I got – pretty much everything failed.

The worst thing about this installation is that, it takes ages to install till the end, then shows up the error message box.

Program Versions:

# SQL Server 2005 – Developer Edition
# Windows Vista Ultimate
# Visual Studio Team Suite 2008

Make sure you cross check Hardware and Software Requirements for Installing SQL Server 2005 before installation.

The first error/warning I tried to fixed was about IIS requirement. I’m sure I have IIS7 enabled on my Vista and also enabled IIS6 compatiblity mode but that is not enough and have to enable some more features.

System Configuration Check: IIS Feature Requirement
Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) is either not installed or is disabled. IIS is required by some SQL Server features. Without IIS, some SQL Server features will not be available for installation. To install all SQL Server features, install IIS from Add or Remove programs in Control Panel or enable the IIS server through the Control Panel if it is already installed, and then run SQL Server Setup again. For a list of features that depend on IIS, see Features Supported by Editions of SQL Server in Books Online.

I think it is to do with Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Service on Vista, untill or unless you enable all those features the Reporting services cannot be installed.

Solution:
The main features to turn on are as mentioned here but I turned on almost everything just to make sure.

More info links:
# How to install SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on a Windows Vista-based computer
# Installation of SQL Server 2005 in Windows Vista – warning message on IIS feature requirement during System Configuration Check
# Tip for Installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Service on Vista

Ok, this one is the weirdest error and solution I got. Don’t even ask why in the world do I need to install Office 2003 Web Component add-in while I have Office 2007 installed on my machine. I have no clue, but that’s the only solution I found which works for me. It solves the “OWC11 Setup failed error and the following error message.

ERROR 1706 Setup cannot find the required files. Check your connection to the network, or CD ROM! For other potential solutions to this problem, see c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\1033\Setup.chm

Solution
You have to download and install “Office 2003 web components” first and install SQL Server 2005 again; which then in my case cleared the error and installed successfully.
# Download: Office 2003 Add-in: Office Web Components – owc11.exe [ 17.6MB ]

After everything is done, remember to install Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2. Pheewww! That’s it!