Windows 7: Sql server express 2005

Okay this is driving me batty and any help y'all could offer would be most appreciated!!

I have an old (2002-era) proprietary program I use for work that ran FINE on 32-bit XP without any special tweaking. It also runs fine on 32-bit Windows 7 on my laptop.

I couldn't get it to install normally in 7 Home Professional x64 (fresh install on my desktop machine replacing XP) so I did some research and found that some people had gotten it to run in Vista x64 if they installed .NET 3.1 and Sql Server Express 2005.
I checked the 7 version of .NET and saw it was 5.x so I figure that should be okay.

I DLed the Sql Server Express 2005 SP3 but could not get it to install. It complains that it is not a valid Win32 application. Well DUH, it's an x64 application!

I did MORE research and found that perhaps I could solve this if I installed the Native Client first. I DLed the NC .msi and tried to install it only to be told "this .msi could not be opened, check with the vendor." Well I DLed it from MS several times so I'm pretty sure it's not corrupt!
Another tutorial suggested doing it from an elevated command prompt but I still got the same error.

Anyway, this is really bugging me.



WHY a program that ran FINE on Windows XP in 2002 should need all this extra crap to run on a 2010 OS is beyond me.

What am I doing wrong on this Sql install???? Thanks in advance.

Jim

You could try running it in XP compatibility mode, it may work then. Right click the icon press Compatibility then press Windows XP, and what ever service pack.

Yes, I tried that to no avail. Thanks for the thoughts though!

Further research has revealed that the SQL .exe is a self-extracting archive. I extracted it with WinRAR, which told me the archive was corrupt. I tried re-downloading and re-extracting Express 2005 from MS with the same results.

Just for s#!+s and giggles I tried the .msi inside but I get another installer error from that.

Just to make sure, you used this download: Download details: SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP3

And from there you downloaded SQLEXPR.exe, correct? If not, try it and let us know if you encounter any errors. As far as .NET, you should only need version 2.0 and with Windows 7, this should be a non-issue as it comes with 3.5 SP1 already installed.

Yes, that's the one I tried. I wound up installing the non-express version but my program still isn't working. It appears that some (of my program's) registry entries weren't made during install even though the install did not throw up any errors like it did before SQL install. :/