Possible bug installing VS 2005 beta 2 on Windows Vista (Longhorn) beta 1

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We have seen a few reports inside of Microsoft of problems installing VS 2005 beta 2 on Windows Vista (previously codenamed Longhorn) beta 1 now that Vista beta 1 has been released and teams are using it more widely. In addition we have seen at least one report on the product feedback site from an external customer (the bug report located here).

This bug does not reproduce 100% of the time and is related to a performance issue or possibly a race condition in the file system code somewhere (the bug is still under investigation and a cause has not yet been fully identified). The symptoms seen during VS 2005 setup will be that MSXML6 fails to install and setup stops there, or that some of the components installed after VS 2005 beta 2 (specifically the 2 versions of the .NET Compact Framework and SQL Mobile) report that they failed to install.

The workaround to resolve this bug if you run into it is to to the following:

  1. Navigate to the WCU subfolder on the VS 2005 beta 2 DVD
  2. Go to the each of the MSXML, NetCF and SQLCE folders
  3. Install the MSI packages in each of those folders by right-clicking on them and choosing Install
  4. After these complete, re-run VS 2005 beta 2 setup and it should complete with no further problems on Windows Vista beta 1.

Also, as a side note, I wanted to mention that Windows Vista beta 1 includes the equivalent of the .NET Framework 2.0 beta 2 bits (with a few additional post-beta 2 bug fixes). Since the beta 2 bits are installed as part of the OS, you cannot replace them with later builds of the .NET Framework 2.0. Therefore, you will be able to install the beta 2 versions of VS 2005 on Vista beta 1.