ASP.NET 3.5 For Dummies®

2.1. Installing Visual Web Developer Express

This section takes you through the installation of Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition (VWDE). If you're using the full Visual Web Developer product that's part of Visual Studio 2008, your setup is somewhat more involved because you have more choices. Apart from the installation, everything in this book about the Express edition applies to the paid version of Visual Web Developer. I flag instances where a feature's available in the paid version but not in VWDE.

If you've installed prelease versions of VWDE, Visual Studio 2008/Orcas, SQL Server, SQL Server Express, or the .NET Framework 3.5, I recommend you uninstall them to start with as clean a system as possible. Always use the Windows uninstall utility to remove software. In XP, choose Control PanelAdd or Remove Programs; in Vista, choose Control PanelPrograms and Features.

You can download a free copy of Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition from Microsoft's Web site. The full installation described in this section requires 3.5GB on the C: drive and a total download of 447MB.

If part of the installation fails, return to the Web site shown in the first step and begin the process ...