Hi, Patrick.
You should read VWD 2005's readme file :
http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/vwd/readme/default.aspx
Two points stand out ( although the others are important, too ) :
1.
"The Beta1 Express editions have been tested side-by-side
with Visual Studio .NET 2003 and these two editions can
be installed on the same computer."
It's not compatible, side-by-side, with VS.NET 2002, though.
Steve's advice is valid, though.
You should not install *any* beta products in a partition
which you can't affor to simply wipe out and start over from.
Installing Virtual PC or VMWare may help,
although some system sluggishness usually results.
Virtual machines require gobs of RAM ( and I mean a LOT! ).
I now prefer to, simply, add a clean drive partition, install betas there,
and when I'm finished, wipe the partition clean and restart the
process by installing a fresh OS and new betas to that partition.
Whatever messes up in one partition should not affect
your day-in-and-day-out installation in another partition.
2.
"Visual Studio file extensions are unregistered
when Express edition is uninstalled.
If multiple Beta1 Express editions are installed on the same computer,
and then one is uninstalled, the uninstall unregisters file extensions it
has
in common with the other Express editions.
This disables the ability to open a Visual Studio file type
(.cs or .vb, for example) by double-clicking on file icons
in Windows Explorer. This will be corrected by the final release.
There are two ways to work around this problem.
Reassociate the Visual Studio file-type extentions in the Folder Options
dialog box (in the File Types tab), which you can access using the
Explorer's Tools | Folder Options menu.
Alternatively, uninstall and reinstall the
Express editions to reregister the file extensions."
Although it's not mentioned that uninstalling VWD will affect
VS.NET 2003, it looks that, if the file associations are removed
for VWD Express, that VS.NET will not be associated with
the open command for those files types when you double-click
them in Windows Explorer.
Fortunately, the fix is quite simple.
Give the readme a thourough reading, and see if any of the
points mentioned would affect your decision to install VWD,
depending on how severely any of the conditions affect you.
There is a mistake in that documentation, btw.
It's point 2.6, where it states that "SQL Server© Express is the
only version of SQL Server that works with the Express Editions
of Visual Studio 2005 Beta".
I am running both VWD Express and VS.NET 2005 betas,
and they both connect to SQL Server 2000 without problems.
Juan T. Llibre
ASP.NET MVP
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