>>Not sure where to post this question, so I am posting in both SQL Server and .NET forums.
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>>I have done a lot of searching to find best practices and recommendations for creating an install CD or DVD for a new Visual Basic 2008 application with a SQL Server 2008 Express back end. This is a single user, single desktop application. The database will always be installed on the desktop (not intended for a server).
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>>The one problem is that our customers are going to be remote. We cannot drive over to their office to solve an installation error. They most likely will have internet, but some may not (and those that do may not have high speed internet).
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>>I have always had great respect for opinions here, and wondered what people have found works best for them when faced with creating a robust installation routine (with required prerequisites getting installed, database user configured, application files installed, shortcut created and database with some default data created).
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>>Thanks!
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>SQL Express is a fairly simple installation. If a user accepts defaults the installation is extremely likely to be successful.
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>I've never scripted a SQLExpress installation since I've never found it necessary, but AFAIK it should be reasonably easy to do.
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>Depending on your user base, you may be able to get by with just a simple instruction sheet for the installation. You'll need to give them specifics for authentication mode and SA password if mixed mode authentication is required. To minimize conflicts, you might want to specify a unique instance name for the server.
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>Obviously you will need an installer for the VB app and associated files (built with VS or Installshield or ...).
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>Your VB app can fire off a script to create or restore a database and add logins using windows administrator or sa rights as needed..

Thanks! I did manage to get the latest .Net (3.5 SP1), Windows Installer 4.5 and SQL Server Express 2008 as well as the app installing using a Visual Studio 2008 setup project. Just configuring a shortcut to be created on the desktop was a challenge - this is quite new to me and I find even things like 'File System on Target Machine' to be a confusing mess - hoping for a 'lightbulb' moment, but find the whole structure of how to do simple things just lacks any common sense. For me, this was so straightforward in Visual FoxPro!

Even though it now seems to install this stuff, it feels like a house of cards. From my reading, I understand that the SQL install can fail if there is another app on the PC that installed SQL Server Express already (either 2008 or earlier versions).... which creates problems such as "what is the name of the current instance, since one is already installed?!" And when SQL Server Express was failing to install on one of my virtual machines, is just flat out failed. No explanation. No useful info in the log files! Scary!

I did manage to get a dialogue with some checkboxes happening (testing what can be done in a Visual Studio setup project), but for the life of me I cannot figure out how to use those values in code - which defeats the purpose of having user input in the first place. I tried to throw up a messagebox to display what the user input was, but ended up with a blank messagebox.

This is so new to me I do not know how to get the setup project to run a script. We are working in VB. Would the script be VB? Or is it a special scripting language? How do I get the setup project to run the script?

Sorry for all the questions.... just feel so lost with all this!