>I seem to have hit a strange sort of gridlock regarding Desktop Engine installation. I had DE on my machine, happily coexisting with SQL Server 2000 client tools which were used on other servers. I needed to simulate an installation that was failing elsewhere, so I uninstalled my DE, now on trying to reinstall it, I get a messagebox that says:
>
>Service 'MSSQLSERVER' (MSSQLSERVER) could not be stopped. Verify that you have sufficient priveleges to stop system services.
>
>I have tried uninstalling my client tools, and still get the above message.
>

It looks like MSDE wasn't fully uninstalled. What version of Windows are you running?