My son is enrolled in a programming course. We have been trying to install the C# portion of Microsoft's Visual Studio without much success. VS 2008 is a free download from MS. We are trying to install on a Win7 x32 o/s.

The install file downloads ok. Near the beginning of the installation, the install stops, indicating that an older version of Visual Studio is already on the computer (???) - an error message indicates VS Service Pack 1 needs to be installed. Fine. I try to download and install the SP. I get another error message that indicates that VS 2008 needs to be installed first (!!!). I'm stuck in an infinite loop!

I've tried to delete and reinstall without any luck. I don't see any reference to a previous install. Do I somehow need to delete registry references?

This has been one of the more frustrating installs that I've been faced with.

Download and install Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1. You probably have some form of SQL Server on there or another MS product that installed VS 2005 components.

Not that this specifically addresses your issue, but why not install the Visual Studio 2010 Express Edition instead of the 2008 Express Edition anyway? It may skirt your problem. I would recommend grabbing the all-in-one ISO and either burning it to disc or mounting it in a virtual drive.

Alternatively, does your son get an MSDN AA subscription through his school as part of his enrolment in their programming stream? I did back when I was in school and he would have the license for the full version if so. I would use that over the Express Edition.

PS: I can honestly say I've never had a problem with any of their installers though in 14 years of using Visual Studio so it's too bad your son is already having them.

I agree with you - the VS 2010 install worked perfectly. However, the school only supports the 2008 version; considering it's a free installation I don't understand, but I don't make the rules!:confused:

We are going to try the VS 2005 sp1 install and see what that does for us.

That's too bad. I hope the 2005 SP1 patch works for you. I would talk to the professor though about using 2010 in class. For my final term project in college I talked my professor into letting me using a different language and database server than his outline called for. It makes no sense to have today's youth learning on outdated software when current options are equally available.

Unfortunately, the 2005 SP1 patch did not work. I had my son search the registry for any previous VS install references and found nothing. I told him to push back to the professor to see if any alternative could be suggested.

What is the exact error message you get when installing VS 2008?

Setup has detected that this computer does not meet the requirements to install this software. These requirements must be met before you can install Microsoft Visual C# 2008 Express Edition with SP1 - ENU.

Requirements and Software Prerequisites

Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1

An earlier version of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 has been detected on the system that must be updated to SP1 before installation can proceed. Please update all other versions of Visual Studio 2008 to SP1 level by visiting Microsoft Update, and then install Visual Studio 2008 Express SP1.

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Windows Update has been run - everything is current. I find no previous installations of VS on the computer.

Googling gets me: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1152074/how-do-i-install-visual-c-express-it-says-i-have-old-version-of-visual-studio

That looks promising! I'm going to see my son tomorrow - will give the suggestions in the link a try and will let you know how it goes.

Sorry for the slow reaction to your suggestions...

Attempted the registry fix - the entry indicated in the link does not appear in my registry. I tried the MS Uninstaller utility - no luck. I thought it might have something to do with compatibility - ran setup file as XP SP2 program - same result. Ran CCleaner to see if the registry fix could be found that way - nope.

My kid (and I) have resigned to the fact that VS 2008 may not be able to be installed in a Win7 environment. He is going to use the college desktops in the lab and hope to have access to these machines after hours. Crazy!

If you have Windows 7 Professional then you can set up an XP Virtual Machine and install VS in there.

Success! Works inside XP virtual machine - thanks!

Glad something worked!