SQL Express 2005 September CTP

The SQL Server 2005 September CTP is now available; if you’re interested in
checking out the latest versions of SQL Express, here are some resources to
help you out when you’re installing the build.

Make sure to follow all the instructions on the download page and read all
the supporting documents related to SQL Express before you try to install.
Most the problems people are having when installing are related to
incompatible versions of beta software and incomplete removal of previous
versions. Unless you have a clean install of Windows on a formatted
computer, you’re probably going to have to do some work to get your
computer ready to install this.

Information about removing previous versions of SQL server and the
requirements for installing this build can be found at:

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/905786
https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/f/8/1f8af9ba-751e-440d-ba2c-006d680b7c81/ReadmeSQL2005.htm
https://download.microsoft.com/download/c/c/6/cc66b572-a402-4c6a-8233-b9c7d05840c7/RequirementsSQLEXP2005.htm

Information about removing previous versions of Visual Studio 2005 can be
found at:

https://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/uninstall/preRTMuninstall/default.aspx
https://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/uninstall/default.aspx

Make sure you remove all the components of earlier versions of SQL Server
and Visual Studio 2005 as well as the .NET Framework 2.0 to be sure you’ve
removed older, incompatible components.

The SQL Express CTP site is located at:

https://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/sql/

You’ll notice that Express Manager is no longer available and the earlier
version will not work with this current CTP. SQL Server Management Studio
(SSMS), which is included with other editions of SQL Server, will allow you
to connect to and manage SQL Express instances. You can get other editions
of SQL Server from here:

https://www.microsoft.com/sql/2005/productinfo/ctp.mspx
If you are interested in using SQL Express in combination with Visual
Studio 2005, you should use the version of SQL Express that is installed by
the Visual Studio 2005 product that you are working with. Don’t try to mix
and match versions of VS 2005 and SQL 2005 on the same computer as the .NET
compatibility can cause problems. Publicly released versions of VS 2005 can
be found at the link below. If you are an MSDN Subscriber, check in the
subscriber download area for the most recently released versions of VS
2005.

https://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/get/

Other things that you might be interested in reading are:

The SQL Server Update from Paul Flessner:
https://www.microsoft.com/sql/2005/productinfo/letter.mspx

The Visual Studio 2005 Update:
https://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/archive/2005/08/22/451026.aspx

Questions and comments? Post ‘em to the newsgroup at https://communities.microsoft.com/newsgroups/default.asp?icp=sqlserver2005&slcid=us&NewsGroup=microsoft.private.sqlserver2005.express.