So, I've been testing Windows Vista for quite some time now under Virtual PC because I've been a little too gun-shy to plop it on my main PC. Something got a hold of me today and I decided to take the plunge and do it. I get that way sometimes :)
So, I made sure everything important was backed up to my server and took the plunge. I did everything by the book. I checked out the Vista Compatibility tool, uninstalled any apps that were problematic. I then installed Vista RC2, choosing to upgrade my XP installation, rather than doing a clean install. What a mistake!!!
The installation actually went smoothly...took about 2 hours...but was smooth. My system is running quite fast...it's snappy. Glass is very cool. But...well, lots of driver problems. I managed to sort those out after a couple of hours.
Then, came the moment of truth...would Visual Studio 2005 work well and can I develop my apps on this puppy? Well, quite frankly I never even got to try. Before I could even get there, I knew that under IIS7 I would have to enable ASP.NET because it's disabled by default. That's when things got really crappy. I went to Control Panel, Programs and Features, drilled down to where I needed to go and checked off ASP.NET. 99% into the install, it failed and said it was unable to install certain features. Thanks.
Another 2 hours of reboots and trying everything I could think of, to no avail. I'm stuck. I can't development my ASP.NET apps on this puppy. I have a couple of choices.
- Pave the box and re-install Vista RC2, and then install all of my applications...ughhh
- Pave the box and install XP or Windows Server 2003, and then install all of my applications...ughhh
- Search Google for a few more hours for any resolutions
- Hope Microsoft responds to my bug report...(not likely)
- Maybe post something at Scott Guthrie's blog in a desperate attempt...(he's very good at responding to customer questions)...I might just try that.
Hey, that's what you get for living on the edge with beta software. Serously, I'm now very concerned that those choosing to upgrade a PC from XP will suffer some serious pain with Vista. Can't say I didn't have fair warning, though.