Error Installing SQL 2008 Business Intelligence Studio and Related Package Load Error in VS2008

It’s been a while since I last blogged. I’ve become a forum moderator, an All-Star and also completed my final exams for my bachelor’s degree since then. Now that I have a little more time, I hope to contribute more often.

I was installing SQL Server 2008 Dev Edition with all features, and ran into some problems. Poking around the internet, I found that the problems arise if VS2008 is installed anywhere other than the default location that the installer provides. Experimenting a bit, I found that these steps help resolve the issues:

Installing SQL 2008 Dev Edition with VS 2008 installed in a non-default location:

First try to install SQL 2008 Dev Edition. Everything should succeed except for the Business Intelligence Studio (BIS). After the installer completes stating that BIS install failed, find the folder which contains devenv.exe (the VS executable). For me this was: D:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE. In that folder, find and copy devenv.exe.config (you may need to have extensions displayed in folder options). Next, browse to one of the following:

For x64 machines: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE

For x86 machines: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE

[If your Windows installation is in another drive, replace ‘C’ with that drive’s letter.]

Paste the devenv.exe.config file in that folder. After that, try running the SQL 2008 installer again and BIS should install.

Holy cow, what on Earth are all these package load failures in VS2008? Damn you, you broke my VS!!

At this point, going into design view in VS should raise all hell with package load failures. The reason is pretty much the same as why the BIS install fails. The BIS packages don’t work right with non-default locations for VS2008. To resolve this, go to one of the following folders:

For x64 machines: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE

For x86 machines: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE

[If your Windows installation is in another drive, replace ‘C’ with that drive’s letter.]

Copy everything (copy, don’t cut. You need them there as well). Now go to the folder that contains devenv.exe. For me this was: D:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE. Paste everything you just copied. [Overwriting should be safe.] VS should work as expected from now on.

There are “better” ways to work around the problem. But they involve messing around with the temp SQL installation config files at install time, and I found that this is the easiest and quickest solution.

Hope that helps.

6 Comments

  • Hey thanks for sharing this. I got this Microsoft lab going on at my college and they're giving away free software to work with (Business Intelligence Studio too) and i was searching over the internet about anything that will make me understand this software better and data mining in general. I'll give it a go on my laptop but should i expect to see any problems on Windows Vista ?

  • Hi HeartattacK,
    I installed VS2008 Professional SP1 in a non-default location on a Vista Home Prem SP1 x64 machine. I then installed SQL Server 2008 Enterprise x64 in a non-default location and encountered the BIS install fail. I followed your instructions and hey presto, BIS installed. So many thanks for that advise.

    I then checked VS and got the load failures, so I followed your instructions relating to that part. I reopened VS and all is now well again except for the Business Intelligence Projects section!

    When creating a new project, I either get the long-winded message that the project type (e.g. ".dwproj") is not supported by this version of the application or the message that the "Object reference not set to an instance of an object".

    I'm new to VS and have tried to find answers on net but nothing short of uninstall/reinstall, which I'd rather not do after all this effort.

    Do you have any ideas as to what it may be?

    Any help much appreciated.
    Thanks
    Sean

  • Hi Sean,

    I encountered the problem of ".dwproj" too when I tried to create a new ananlysis service project in VS2008 which installed in a non-default location.

    I also tried to find a better way, but I failed. Then I repaired (not good enough but more efficient I think than uninstall/reinstall) SQL Server 2008 and it works.

    Regards,

    Boris

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  • I spent more than 3 days on solving this problem and got nothing. It drove me crazy until I saw your post. Thank you for saving me.

    My problem was that I had to install the VS2008 to another folder instead of Program Files (x86) because I needed to use SSIS to connect Oracle database on a 64 bit machine.

    Thanks again.

  • I am very grateful!

    I have long been looking for a solution to this problem, and eventually can be resolved after following your tips

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