>>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!
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>>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!
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>>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.
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>>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?
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>>Sorry for all the questions.... just feel so lost with all this!
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>First - come up with a very unique name for the SQL instance you want to install. This way, your installation should not have issues with the SQL instance already existing.
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>As far as scripting, I would do as much as possible when your application loads - not during the installation process (been there - done that). Have your application check to see if the SQL Server and the database exists. If the SQL Server instance does not exist - installation must be redone. If the database does not exist, create or restore it on the spot and then proceed with normal operation.
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>FWIW all of my VFP applications use SQL Server or Express. I've got at least a hundred single-user desktop SQL Express installations in the field (not to mention lots of network applications). Reliability is absolutely outstanding. IMHO SQL Server/Express is the only way to handle data.

Thanks for all the help! Great points about a unique SQL instance and about doing as much as possible when the application loads.

We are definately resisting going to SQL CE. We want to stick with SQL Express. Glad to hear you have so many successful installations in the field!