bonneyarmstrong.com - a thoroughly unpleasant experience

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a thoroughly unpleasant experience

you wanna know what *really* sucks? installing Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Developer (2003). I have never had so many problems installing a piece of software in my entire life.

first, I already *had* the Microsoft .net platform 1.1 installed on my xp professional box. but no. *that* wasn't enough. I uninstalled it and tried to reinstall it. then it wouldn't, once I'd tried to run the windows update disk that came with the .net disks. the windows update disk would keep running through the install and then giving me a cheery window telling me that it had failed.

I found an obscure tech net article online that said that you had to empty out all your temp files before you could install successfully. bugger. so I did that, to no avail. I tried running the dotnetfx.exe manually - nothing.

however, once I started to poke around, I discovered in the C:\Documents and Settings\default\Local Settings\Temp directory (I use the box as default; too lazy to set up another profile, since I'm the only user) a log file from the installation - dotNetFx.log. from there I determined that the msi.dll wasn't loading ([01/20/04] Trying to load msi.dll). it was looking for a copy of it in C:\WINDOWS\INSTALLER\INSTMSI0\. so I manually created the INSTMSI0 directory, and copied msi.dll into it.

I then installed the .net 1.1 platform - it worked. I installed the .net sdk manually too at that time, because it said in the article you had to have that installed too. it also warned that your mdac had to be the most current version. I looked in the log file (dotNetFx.log) afterwards; it said my mdac version was, "[01/20/04] Checking MDAC Version; [01/20/04] Looking for 2.70.7713.0; [01/20/04] Found MDAC Version: 2.71.9030.4; [01/20/04] MDAC Version OK". so that went well. when the update disk finished, then I could install the visual studio .net part.

but my troubles weren't over. turns out there's no simple "insert disk 2" command. so the installation looked like it was hung up looking for a particular file! it was a .jpg file, so I just tried to skip it, thinking it was a glitch on the disk. then it wanted to skip another file. at that point, it dawned on me that maybe I should put in the next disk. no pop up message windows for which Microsoft is famous, telling me to put in the next disk. lo and behold, if that wasn't it! and all subsequent disk changes were handled in the same abrupt "we can't find your file, abort/retry/cancel" manner. I have never seen such a lousy install routine in my entire life - and I have a mainframe background. whoever spawned this misbegotten excuse for an installation procedure should be taken out behind the back of the Microsoft headquarters and shot - twice.

it works now, but I spent several really miserable hours screwing with it, futilely looking for online tips, and downloading things that should have installed automatically. and I'd thought the 2002 version was a bitch to install...!