Hi Cecil,
I am wondering at this point if it might make sense just to reinstall the OS. It sounds like there is some stuff going on that might be hard to troubleshoot/fix.

My organization still uses 2005. If it were up to me, we would go to 2008 just for the sake of being on the latest and greatest, but 2005 is still great, as is 2000.

>I am wondering how prominent SQL Server 2005 still is, and if so, whether or not I should go ahead and load it on my Windows 7 HP Laptop? Is SQL Server 2005 compatible with Windows 7.
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>I just spent the past couple hours removing Visual Studio 2010, 2008 and also SQL Server 2005 and 2008 from my laptop. I removed all of this so I can start over and do it correctly, so that all of it will actually work right this time around. A few months ago, I installed SQL Server 2005 after having already installed SQL Server 2008, which caused my SQL Server 2008 Management Studio to not work at all. Then there were problems in Visual Studio 2008, because I first installed Visual Studio 2010, and then 2008. The sequencing of these installations is obviously important.
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>Has anyone gone through these same gyrations?
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>Again, although I think it's a good idea to install SQL Server 2005, I'd like to know if there is any consensus about the importance of having SQL Server 2005 installed, although 2008 is and has been out for a couple years now.
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>Update on 12 Dec 2009:
>I attempted numerous times to install SQL Server 2005 on my Windows 7 Laptop, but was unsuccessful; the same with SQL Server 2008. Finally decided to quit at 2:00 AM this morning. Back up again for a freee ASP.NET MVC class with my user group in Riverside, California. http://www.iedotnetug.org/ug
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>Cecil