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FIX: Rule “Previous releases of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008″ failed.

August 10th, 2008 Leave a comment Go to comments

Far easier solution is given by Paul in the comments section, highly recommended you follow his suggestion.

As you may be aware, Microsoft RTM’d SQL Server 2008 a few days ago, unfortunately if you have the RTM version of Visual Studio 2008 (any edition) installed you’ll find that installing SQL Server 2008 you’ll get a nasty little surprise:

Rule “Previous releases of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008″ failed.
A previous release of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 is installed on this computer. Upgrade Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 to the SP1 before installing SQL Server 2008.

This is all explained in the KB956139 – Visual Studio 2008 SP1 may be required for SQL Server 2008 installations, there is however a fix or a workaround to installing SQL Server without the need for SP1 if you aren’t able to obtain it.

Simply customise the installer so that these components aren’t installed:

  • Management Tools
  • Integration Services
  • Business Intelligence Development Studio

Then things will chug along nicely:-)

You can download it on MSDN Subscriber Downloads or the TechNet Subscriber Downloads section. Dont forget to checkout What’s New in SQL Server 2008.

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  1. October 22nd, 2010 at 22:08 | #1

    Hey paul… thanks alot buddy…. love u.. again and again love you….. u done very great job for us…. by ur methos i done the installation… before this i spent 5hourse, to stuck with the installation of sql server 2008, every time same error… () but at last i found the paul technique…… and now successfuly done every thing.. without any boom bastic error….
    once again thanks you

  2. salman.iiitc@gmail.com
    October 23rd, 2010 at 03:34 | #2

    Thanks paul.! you Did Great Job.Thank you Very Much.

    Shekh Muzaphar Salman
    Riyadh

  3. November 15th, 2010 at 17:12 | #3

    Thanks a lot Paul. it Worked :)

  4. November 16th, 2010 at 20:19 | #4

    Great Work Man :)
    Thanks alot

  5. Billy
    December 15th, 2010 at 11:17 | #5

    Anyone knows how to install Management studio after that?

  6. January 11th, 2011 at 21:11 | #6

    uninstalled everything possible related to Visual Studio 2008 and ran SQL Server 2008 Setup… now works a treat…

  7. Rasha
    March 8th, 2011 at 01:17 | #7

    Hi many many many THX to you
    you are a life saver

  8. Fayeq
    June 2nd, 2011 at 18:23 | #8

    Thanks a Lot!

  9. June 26th, 2011 at 09:51 | #9

    @Paul
    Thanks Paul – been up till near 1am trying to get this thing to install. Now doing it…… bed in a minute…

  10. Hasib
    July 15th, 2011 at 12:03 | #10

    Thanks :)

  11. July 22nd, 2011 at 23:14 | #11

    If you are trying to install SQL-2008 and you also have visual studio 2008 installed with service pack one (SP1) and get the error

    “A previous release of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 is installed on this computer. Upgrade Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 to the SP1 before installing SQL Server 2008”

    Then welcome to the Microsoft beta testing program even if you purchased the faulty software.

    With XP the most common solution seem to be renaming the registry key
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing\9.0
    And replacing ‘9.0’ with ‘9.0Old’ however this does not solve the problem if you are using windows 7 and the only solution I managed to find that worked was to uninstall VS2008 and all the components and to then install SQL-2008 and finally reinstall VS2008.

  12. Duy Nguyen
    August 30th, 2011 at 11:13 | #12

    :D Thank you.

  13. Enos
    September 1st, 2011 at 21:00 | #13

    Thanks Paul!

  14. Enos
    September 1st, 2011 at 22:32 | #14

    @David Davis
    Thanks alot man. worked like a charm!

  15. akshay
    November 19th, 2011 at 07:14 | #15

    That was great and simple solution. Thanks paul

  16. SBSR
    January 28th, 2012 at 16:41 | #16

    Tnx a lot, very simple solution…..Thats fine

  17. Nikhil
    February 22nd, 2012 at 00:28 | #17

    Upgrade Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 to the SP1 but where pls send me any lint or site from where i want to upgrade a visual studio 2008

  18. Nikhil
    February 22nd, 2012 at 00:33 | #18

    Upgrade Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 to the SP1 but where pls send me any link or site from where i want to upgrade a visual studio 2008 pls send me reply fast because its urgent pls understand my problem

    From
    Nikhil

  19. john
    April 4th, 2012 at 06:58 | #19

    Thank you Paul. Your solution worked like a charm.

  20. April 10th, 2012 at 15:05 | #20

    This was very useful info for avoiding errors during installation of MSSQL server 2008

  21. kunal
    April 19th, 2012 at 17:28 | #21

    Thanks a lot Paul. you are awsm :)

  22. April 22nd, 2012 at 06:25 | #22

    paul Pls help me out too..
    i have installed both Vb 2008 express edition 2008 SP 1anD 2010 SP1Rel..
    on installing its displays error ” previous version error” but both are SP1 ….
    also i as mentioned unselected Management Tools & Business Intelligence Development Studio but am not able to find Integration Services and on proceeding other error is displayed ..
    plz plz help me out ….

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