February 26, 2009

Installing Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Express with Advanced Services on Windows Vista Home Premium

I recently installed Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Express with Advanced Services on my Windows Vista Home Premium laptop and it took some time to get all the updates from Microsoft prior to getting it running. Here are the steps if you want to do the same:

1. Download .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 from this link and install it on your computer. Once installation is complete you will be asked to restart your computer and run Windows Update to install any updates that Windows Vista requires you to install.
2. Once your computer has restarted, go to the Control Panel and run Windows Update. You may find a few updates available already for installation and can install them (I did so). Once you’re done installing these, click on this link ‘Check for updates’ in the left column on the Windows Update page. If your computer is not setup to install updates frequently, you may have quite a few updates to install, but in most cases this won’t be an exhaustive list. My computer required one update and that was not related to .NET Framework 3.5 SP1.
3. Next you may visit this page to download Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Express with Advanced Services and there are two files to choose from but if you’re running Vista the file you need to download is SQLEXPRADV_x86_ENU.exe which should be good for most 32-bit versions of XP and Vista. This is a 502.7 MB file so it may take a while to download depending on your connection. It took me somewhere between 30-40 minutes to get this downloaded.
4. Install Windows Installer 4.5 Redistributable from this link and this is required to run the installation smoothly. The file that you need to download is Windows6.0-KB942288-v2-x86.msu and you may read the section called Instructions to find out which version is best for your OS.
5. A screen pops up and asks you to permit it to install Hotfix for Windows (KB942288), say yes to that. The Download and Install Updates window appears, the update is downloaded and once the installation is complete you’re asked to restart your computer ‘for the updates to take effect’! Do so.
6. Download and install Windows PowerShell 1.0 Installation Package for Windows Vista from this link. The download requires validation of your windows copy and once done, you get to download a file called Windows6.0-KB928439-x86.msu. This file installs another hotfix/update for Windows (KB928439). I came to know about this when I was through to step 7 and 8 below so I’ve added it here as step 6 to help you avoid the hassle of canceling your installation.
   
7. Run SQLEXPRADV_x86_ENU.exe. SQL Server Installation Center window appears and you see several links all over the place. Click on Installation (second link in the left column) and then click on New SQL Server stand-alone installation or add features to an existing installation. Follow the screens that pop-up.
8. A window popups up requesting you to Setup Support Files. This is required to setup SQL Server. Click Install to proceed and your system goes through a check. Hit ‘Next’ for the first three steps that are Setup Support Rules, Product Key and License Terms and you will reach Feature Selection.
9. If you’re interested in a full install, tick all the options that appear under Instance Features and Shared Features. Click Next to proceed.
10. On the Instance Configuration screen select Default Instance or name it if required. You’re now taken to the Disk Space Requirements window where you see how much space you need. 2191 MB all in all not bad. Don’t bother (hit Next)!
11. Next you reach the Server Configuration screen that requires entering service accounts for each service that is being installed. This is the tricky part and you wouldn’t know which account to enter (I didn’t) so after a bit of googling I found out that you can use your Windows Vista default admin account for this purpose. You can click on Use the same account for all SQL Server services and a pop-up requires you to select one. Click Browse and locate your account name by entering your Windows Vista username in the ‘Enter the object name to select’ text box and click on the Check Names button. You should be able to find your account name pretty easily so select it and click OK to get back to the Server Configuration screen. Do remember that your password is the one you use to login to Vista and if you don’t use a password to login, try and leave the password field blank to proceed (hope that works). Click Next and it should work fine (worked for me).
12. On the Database Engine Configuration screen select Mixed Mode as your authentication mode and setup a password. You may add additional users on this screen or click on Add Current User to add your Windows user to this list.
    
13. Install your reporting services from the Reporting Services Configuration screen and select the option that suits you. I installed reporting services by selecting the first option ‘Install the native mode default configuration’.
    
14. On the next screen select your Error and Usage Reporting options and proceed. Click Next on the Installation Rules screen and you will now see the Ready to Install screen with an Install button. Hurry!
15. Click the Install button and let the installation begin. This should be your final choice. Once everything is installed in the next 30-40 minutes, you’ll see a final ‘Setup process complete’ notification with the word ‘Success’ besides all installed features. Click Next and you should happily read, ‘Your SQL Server 2008 installation completed successfully’. Click Close and you’re good to go.
    

I wrote this post while I installed SQL Server 2008 so I know it ran fine with all the above steps. This note should help you find your way to a clean install. Would appreciate if you post your experience in the comments below. Thanks!

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