You hit it, Tom. The MSDE install is a DOS command line install. The readme with instructions can be found on the Visual Studio disk, though, no DL required (as far as I remember). If Ken can get a hold of Office Developer, the install is slightly friendlier there and it's through the normal setup.

>......I try to run that exe, all I get is a " ... is not a valid win32 application" error. Win 98 machine.
>
>I had the same problem with the disc from Visual Stuido 6.0 AND I AM RUNNING WIN98!
>
>It ended up that I had to download MSDE from the Microsoft site and then use a dos command line (explained in a read.me file that came with the download) to get it to install. Hope this is not the road you have to take!
>
>Tom Gahagan
>REST