I am having some problems installing the VBSDK Starter Kit.  I have installed MSDE SP3 and everything seems to be fine.  The service has started ok and when I create a test connection in the control panel it works fine. 

However when I run the VBSDK installation program and it gets to the part where I am supposed to select the local database instance everything seems to fall apart.  The drop down list contains 'localhost', but the Install button is not enabled and when I click the 'Test Connection' button it comes up with a 'unsuccesfull database connection' message box.

What have I done wrong?  has anybody else had this same problem?  I am running XP Professional SP2.  Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers.

Kamran,

I think that you can get the install to recognize the default instance of MSDE by giving the ASPNET user account access and ownership of that instance (assuming that you are using IIS 5.x and not IIS 6.0).  The alternative is to create a named instance and use that, which works for sure. 

There are some good instructions for installing a named instance at this link:
http://web.lemoyne.edu/courseinformation/MIS465/Chapter06Data/MSDE_ReadMe.doc

Basically, you will do the following, step-by-step:

1. CONFIGURE THE  PATH  VARIABLE as described in the document linked above to
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\80\Tools\Binn

2. CONFIGURE THE  ASPNET USER ACCOUNT - at the command prompt, enter

osql -E -S (local)\NetSDK -Q "sp_grantlogin 'MACHINENAME\ASPNET'"

3. CONFIGURE INDIVIDUAL DATABASES - at the command prompt, enter

osql -E -S (local)\NetSDK -d DatabaseName -Q "sp_grantdbaccess   'MACHINENAME\ASPNET'"

osql -E -S (local)\NetSDK -d DatabaseName -Q "sp_addrolemember 'db_owner',   'MACHINENAME\ASPNET'"

Note: Replace the 'MACHINENAME' with the name of your server, and replace DatabaseName with whatever name you want for the database.

If you want to use the default instance, just run the code above using (local) instead of (local)\NetSDK.

jake