DevBlog

When Beta 1 for Visual Studio 2005 shipped, I blogged about how bad the install was and then blogged about the email I received from the the VS Install Program Manager. Yesterday, I installed Beta 2 and the install process still isn't right. Here's what I did...
- Went through the manual uninstall steps for Beta 1 and SQL Server 2005. This is not right. Uninstall should not be this complicated.
- Dropped the VS install disk into the DVD drive and launched steup.
- Agreed to the EULA.
- Got a message that some part of Beta 1 was still lurking about. Why couldn't all the Beta 1 components identify themselves as such in Add/Remove programs? Why didn't the Beta 1 uninstall remove everything? All the components got installed from a single install procedure, it should be able to remove them. Short of that, the Beta 2 install recognized them, why can't it remove them.
- Removed the rogue Beta 1 component.
- Manually launched Beta 2 setup.
- Agreed to the EULA. I did this once before. There's no reason my previous answer can't be saved. Better yet, if Beta 1 had a proper uninstall, this would have been totally unnecessary.
- Selected the features to install (Web Development, VB, C#, SQL Server).
- Twiddled thumbs while the .NET Framework 2.0 installed.
- Got a message about needing to reboot. The Windows XP Logo Program for Software states, "An application that meets the "Install/Remove" requirements will install onto Windows XP without degrading the operating system or other applications...Do not require a reboot inappropriately." From a user's standpoint, inappropriately is never. Install should never need to reboot. Ever. At least it gave me the option of rebooting now or later instead of just rebooting.
- Shutdown all running applications. Rebooted.
- Manually launched Beta 2 setup. Again. This is wrong. Setup should have automatically continued after the reboot.
- Agreed to the EULA. I did this once before. There's no reason my previous answer can't be saved. Better yet, if Beta 1 had a proper uninstall, this would have been totally unnecessary. WAIT!!!! I already did this! Twice!
- Selected the features to install (Web Development, VB, C#, SQL Server). I already did this too! Again, THERE IS NO REASON SETUP CANNOT SAVE THIS INFORMATION TO A TEMP FILE SO I DON'T HAVE TO BE ASKED AGAIN!!!!!!!!!
- Twiddled thumbs while VS was installed.
- Got a message that Setup was complete, but warnings were generated.
- Reviewed both the Error Log and Visual Studio Setup Log. There are dozens of lines in each, none of which make any sense to me. Why aren't the warning messages in plain language (in my case, English), per the Official Guidelines for User Interface Developers and Designers?
- Got a message that to install MSDN, I have to run a separate setup. Why can't this be an option that was checked when selecting features and then automatically install?
- Got a message that a reboot was required. No, No, No!!!!! NEVER EVER REQUIRE A REBOOT FOR APPLICATION SOFTWARE!!!
- Shutdown all running applications and rebooted.
- Manually started MSDN install.
- Noted that Visual FoxPro documentation is an optional install. However, docs are for VFP 8.0. VFP 9.0 has been out for over four months. There is no excuse for not providing the latest docs.
- Discovered that SQL Server Express was installed. Visual Studio is a developer tool. SQL Server Developer Edition should be installed, not Express.
- Uninstalled SQL Server 2005 Express.
- Installed SQL Server 2005 Develop Edition, April CTP.

Now that everything is installed, it's time to play.