You must install the .NET Framework 2.0 before installing SQL Server Express.

SQL Server Express depends on a specific 2.0 version of the .NET Framework. If you have a different version, your SQL Server Express installation might function unpredictably. You can download the .NET Framework 2.0 from this Microsoft Web site.

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SQL Server Express is available for download at this Microsoft Web site.

After you install SQL Server Express, use the following command to connect to SQL Server Express by using the command prompt:

sqlcmd -S Server\Instance

Where Server is the name of the computer and Instance is the name of the instance you want to connect to. If you have used the default named instance during setup, specify the instance as "SQLExpress".

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For information about connecting to and managing a SQL Server Express database, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 907716.

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Hardware and software requirements are summarized in the Installation Requirements for SQL Server Express document.

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SQL Server 2005 readme file is available online at this Microsoft Web site.

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Setup might fail and roll back with the following error message: "An installation package for the product Microsoft SQL Native Client cannot be found. Try the installation again using a valid copy of the installation package 'sqlncli.msi'." To work around this problem, uninstall SQL Native Client by using Add or Remove Programs. On a cluster, uninstall SQL Native Client from all nodes. Then, run SQL Server Setup again.

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System Configuration Checker (SCC) verifies the value of the Performance Monitor Counter registry key before SQL Server installation begins. If SCC cannot verify the existing registry key, or if SCC cannot run the Lodctr.exe system program, the SCC check fails, and Setup is blocked. To complete setup, you must manually increment the registry key.

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The "Hardware and Software Requirements (SQL Server Express)" topic in SQL Server Express Books Online does not have an accurate list of operating systems. The following operating systems are supported by SQL Server Express.

• Windows Server 2003 SP1
  
  
• Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition SP1
  
  
• Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition SP1
  
  
• Windows Small Business Server 2003 Standard Edition SP1
  
  
• Windows Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition SP1
  
  
• Windows XP Professional SP2
  
  
• Windows XP Home Edition SP2
  
  
• Windows XP Tablet Edition SP2
  
  
• Windows XP Media Edition SP2
  
  
• Windows 2000 Professional Edition SP4
  
  
• Windows 2000 Server Edition SP4
  
  
• Windows 2000 Advanced Edition SP4
  
  
• Windows 2000 Datacenter Server Edition SP4
  
  

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Windows Cryptographic Service Provider (CSP) is code that performs authentication, encoding, and encryption services that Windows-based applications access through CryptoAPI on Windows Server 2003. If the CSP service is stopped or disabled, SQL Server Setup fails and displays a Windows Logo Requirement message.

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Because the Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MS DTC) is not completely configured in Windows, applications might fail to enlist SQL Server Express resources in a distributed transaction. This problem can affect linked servers, distributed queries, and remote stored procedures that use distributed transactions. To prevent such problems, you must fully enable MS DTC services on the server where SQL Server Express is installed.

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The sample databases are not installed by default in SQL Server Express. The Northwind and pubs sample databases can be downloaded from this Microsoft Web site. The Adventureworks sample database can be installed from this Microsoft Web site.

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Setup might fail if an existing SQL Server client installation is configured with the "force encryption" option enabled. To work around this issue, disable the option on any SQL Server clients. For Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) clients in SQL Server 2000, use the SQL Server 2000 Client Network Utility. For SQL Native Client, uninstall SQL Native Client by using Add or Remove Programs. On a cluster, uninstall SQL Native Client from all nodes. Then run SQL Server 2005 Setup again.

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Setup from the command prompt might fail when you uninstall an earlier Community Technology Preview (CTP) release of SQL Server Express using SAVESYSDB and then install this release using USESYSDB, if the sp_configure options SMO and DMO XPs are disabled on the earlier instance. To resolve this issue, ensure that these options are enabled before using Setup to upgrade system databases. For more information, see "Setting Server Configuration Options" in SQL Server Books Online at this Microsoft Web site.

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If your computer has SQL Server 2000 Management Tools and a default instance of SQL Server Express is installed, SQL Server Setup will permit you to install a SQL Server 2000 default instance. However, doing so will disable the installed instance of SQL Server Express. Therefore, do not install a default instance of SQL Server 2000 when SQL Server 2000 Management Tools and a default instance of SQL Server Express already exist on the computer.

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It is possible to install SQL Server Express on a Windows domain controller; however, it cannot run on a Windows Server 2003 domain controller as Local Service or Network Service. SQL Server service accounts should run as Windows domain user accounts. It is also possible to install SQL Server service accounts to run as Local System, but this option is not recommended.

Do not change the role of the server after you install SQL Server Express. For example, if you install SQL Server Express on a member server, do not use the Dcpromo tool to promote the server to a domain controller. Or, if you install SQL Server Express on a domain controller, do not use Dcpromo to demote the server to a member server. Changing the role of a server after you install SQL Server Express can result in loss of functionality and is not supported.

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Setup might fail and roll back with the following error message: "An installation package for the product Microsoft SQL Native Client cannot be found. Try the installation again using a valid copy of the installation package 'sqlncli.msi'." To work around this problem, uninstall SQL Native Client by using Add or Remove Programs. On a cluster, uninstall SQL Native Client from all nodes. Then, run SQL Server Setup again.

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You must remove all previous builds of SQL Server Express, Visual Studio 2005, and the .NET Framework 2.0 before installation. Because both products depend on the same version of the .NET Framework, they must be uninstalled in the following order:

• SQL Server Express
  
  
• Visual Studio 2005
  
  
• .NET Framework 2.0
  
  

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If you install a new SQL Server 2005 component in maintenance mode, you will be prompted for the location of Setup.exe on the SQL Server 2005 installation media. When specifying the location, make sure that the path includes "Setup.exe." For example, the path "D:\" will fail, but "D:\Setup.exe" will succeed.

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Setup command shell scripts can generate Windows script errors when path variables contain parentheses. This occurs because command shell scripts do not support parentheses in path variables, which can occur when installing 32-bit components to the Windows on Windows (WOW64) 32-bit subsystem on a 64-bit computer. For example, the following script, with a path value of "C:\Program Files (x86)\", generates an error because the shell script interpreter misinterprets the parentheses in the expanded PATH variable as part of the IF/ELSE statement:

IF "%SOME_PATH%" == "" (

SET PATH=%PATH%;%PATH_A%

) ELSE (

SET PATH=%PATH%;%PATH_B%

)

To work around this issue, change the script to remove the parentheses. For example:

IF "%SOME_PATH%" == "" set PATH=%PATH%;%PATH_A%

IF NOT "%SOME_PATH%" == "" set PATH=%PATH%;%PATH_B%

Or remove the SQL entry containing parentheses from the path.

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For SQL Server Express, the Local System Account is Network Service Account.

SQL Server Express listens on local named pipes and shared memory. With a default installation, you cannot remotely connect to SQL Server Express. You will need to enable TCP/IP and check if the firewall is enabled.

SQL Server Express allows non-administrator users to copy or move databases (using Xcopy deployment) without requiring DBCreator privileges. For more information, see “User Instances for Non-Administrators” in SQL Server Express Books Online at this Microsoft Web site.

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WMI Provider for Server Events will not be supported on the dynamically spawned user instances. This should still work on the parent SQL Server Express instance.

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SQL Server Express Books Online is available for download from this Microsoft Web site.

SQL Server 2005 Books Online is available for download from this Microsoft Web site.

Microsoft periodically publishes downloadable updates to SQL Server Express Books Online and SQL Server 2005 Books Online. We recommend installing these updates to keep the information current in your local copy of the documentation.

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There are four principal sources of information from Microsoft about SQL Server Express:

• SQL Server Express documentation and samples
  
  
• SQL Server 2005 documentation
  
  
• SQL Server sites on Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and TechNet
  
  
• SQL Server information on additional Microsoft Web sites
  
  

You can also get help from others either through the SQL Server community or directly from Microsoft support. For more information, see "Getting SQL Server Express Assistance" in SQL Server Express Books Online.

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For newsgroup support, visit the SQL Server Express newsgroup at this Microsoft Web site. Do not use other Microsoft newsgroups for posting questions regarding SQL Server Express.

The latest information from the SQL Server Express team can be found at the SQL Server Express Weblog.

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To provide suggestions and bug reports on SQL Server Express:

• Send suggestions and bug reports about the features and user interface of SQL Server Express at this Microsoft Web site.
  
  
• Send suggestions and report inaccuracies about the documentation using the feedback functionality in SQL Server Express Books Online.
  
  
• Choose to send error reports and feature usage data automatically to Microsoft for analysis.
  
  

For more information, see "Providing Feedback on SQL Server 2005" in SQL Server Books Online.

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If TCP/IP networking is turned on, client connections to an instance of the SQL Server Express Database Engine running on Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 might fail with the following error: "ProviderNum: 7, Error: 10054, ErrorMessage: "TCP Provider: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host"."

This might occur when you are testing scalability with a large number of client connection attempts. To resolve this issue, use the regedit.exe utility to add a new DWORD value named SynAttackProtect to the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\ with value data of 00000000.

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SQL Server 2005 Books Online incorrectly states that when a conversation using dialog security spans databases, SQL Server creates a session key encrypted with the master key for the database. Actually, the session key is encrypted with the master key for the database for all conversations that use dialog security. If a database master key is not available, messages for the conversation remain in the transmission_queue with an error until a database master key is created or the conversation times out. Either use the ENCRYPTION = OFF parameter to create an unencrypted dialog, or use the following command to create a database master key:

CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = '<password>'

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Each instance of a byte-ordered user-defined type (UDT) object can have only one serialized representation. If the serialize or de-serialize routines recognize more than one representation of a particular object, you may see errors in the following cases:

• During validation of a byte-ordered UDT passed through RPC, UDT validation performs de-serialization/re-serialization of the UDT and requires that the resulting bytes be exactly the same as the original. If the validation fails, you will see the error: "System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException, Incoming TDS RPC protocol stream is incorrect. Parameter 1 ("<ParameterName>"): The supplied value is not a valid instance of data type <TypeName>. Check the source data for invalid values."
  
  
• During DBCC, the bytes stored in a byte-ordered UDT column must be equal to the computed serialization of the UDT value. If this is not true, the DBCC CHECKTABLE routine will report a consistency error.
  
  

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To enhance security, SQL Server Express disables network connectivity for some new installations. Network connectivity using TCP/IP is not disabled if you are using SQL Server Enterprise, Standard, or Workgroup Edition, or if a previous installation of SQL Server is present. Named Pipes connectivity is available only for local connections unless a previous installation of SQL Server is present. For all installations, the shared memory protocol is enabled to allow local connections to the server. The SQL Browser service might be stopped, depending on installation conditions and installation options.

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The following limitations apply to common language runtime (CLR) assemblies that contain user-defined types.

If WITH UNCHECKED DATA is not specified, SQL Server attempts to prevent ALTER ASSEMBLY from executing if the new assembly version affects existing data in tables, indexes, or other persistent sites. SQL Server does not guarantee, however, that computed columns, indexes, indexed views or expressions will be consistent with the underlying routines and types when the common language runtime (CLR) assembly is updated. Use caution when executing ALTER ASSEMBLY to ensure that there is not a mismatch between the result of an expression and a value based on that expression stored in the assembly.

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The autorecovered shadow copy feature of the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) has the following limitations.

SQL Server does not allow registering different versions of an assembly with the same name, culture, and public key. If you plan to retain databases from a version of SQL Server Express earlier than the September CTP release, you must drop all but one instance of an assembly that has multiple registrations before you install this release.

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To create an EXTERNAL_ACCESS or UNSAFE assembly in SQL Server, or to load an assembly, one of the following two conditions must be met:

• The assembly is strong name signed or authenticode signed with a certificate. This strong name (or certificate) is created inside SQL Server as an asymmetric key (or certificate) and has a corresponding logon with EXTERNAL ACCESS ASSEMBLY permission (for external access assemblies) or UNSAFE ASSEMBLY permission (for unsafe assemblies).
  
  
• The database owner (DBO) has EXTERNAL ACCESS ASSEMBLY (for EXTERNAL ACCESS assemblies) or UNSAFE ASSEMBLY (for UNSAFE assemblies) permission, and the database has the TRUSTWORTHY database property set to ON.
  
  

We recommend that the TRUSTWORTHY property on a database not be set to ON only to run common language runtime (CLR) code in the server process. Instead, we recommend that an asymmetric key be created from the assembly file in the master database. A logon mapped to this asymmetric key must then be created, and the logon must be granted EXTERNAL ACCESS ASSEMBLY or UNSAFE ASSEMBLY permissions.

The following Transact-SQL statements perform the steps that are required to create an asymmetric key, map a logon to this key, and then grant EXTERNAL_ACCESS ASSEMBLY permission to the logon. You must execute the following Transact-SQL statements before executing the CREATE ASSEMBLY statement.

USE master
GO  

CREATE ASYMMETRIC KEY HelloWorldKey FROM EXECUTABLE FILE = 'C:\HelloWorld.dll'  
CREATE LOGIN HelloWorldLogin FROM ASYMMETRIC KEY HelloWorldKey  
GRANT EXTERNAL ACCESS ASSEMBLY TO HelloWorldLogin
GO

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The behavior of programs that run under an application role might change because, by default, SQL Server Express limits the visibility of master database metadata to application roles. As a temporary workaround, you can enable trace flag #4616. For more information, see Knowledge Base article 906549.

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The SUPPLEMENTAL_LOGGING database option is not implemented in this release of SQL Server. This option can be set but has no effect.

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Assemblies that fail to load into the server address space for any reason will still appear in the sys.dm_clr_loaded_assemblies dynamic management view.

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The following aspects of the SQL Server Express XQuery implementation are not documented in Books Online:

• Characters that are generated by CDATA sections are not considered to be white-space characters. For example, select cast(''as xml).query('<a> <![CDATA[ ]]> {"abc"}</a>') returns <a> abc</a>.
  
  
• Construction of empty elements and attributes is supported.
  
  
• The namespace prefix xmlns identifies a namespace declaration attribute and cannot be redeclared in an XQuery expression. This behavior is required by the XQuery specification.
  
  
• Using 'for' with source expression () yields a static error.
  
  
• In an XML document that is constructed by using the query() method on the xml data type, a carriage return within a CDATA section becomes a line feed. The line feed is used instead of the earlier carriage-return entity reference (&#x0d;) for uniformity with text XML parsing.
  
  
• Transact-SQL user-defined functions that contain local-name() and namespace-uri() are deterministic.
  
  

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A string representation of an xs:dateTime value that does not contain a date and time separator T or a time zone can be converted to an SQL datetime type in a value() method, as in the following example:

declare @aaa xml
set @aaa = '<AAA MyDate="2005/1/1 00:00:00"/>'
select @aaa.value('(//AAA)[1]/@MyDate', 'datetime')

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The following aspects of the SQL Server 2005 support for XML Schema are not documented in SQL Server 2005 Books Online:

• The XML schema for Reporting Services (RDL) can be loaded into an XML schema collection.
  
  
• Values of type xs:dateTime and xs:time that contain second values that have more than three fractional digits do not return an error. Instead they are rounded off.
  
  
• An XML schema is rejected if maxInclusive is redefined in a derived type when base type has fixed="true".
  
  
• Trailing spaces in minInclusive, minExclusive, maxInclusive, and maxExclusive facets are ignored in derived types that restrict the xs:dateTime, xs:data, and xs:time data types.
  
  

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Do not use RC4 encryption to protect your data in SQL Server 2005. Use a block cipher such as AES 256 or Triple DES instead.

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Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition can serve as a Subscriber for all types of replication, but replication is not installed by default for this edition.