VSTS Team Suite TRIAL - CD/Directory Install - Be Careful!

If you downloaded the VSTS trial on CDs, be careful of the installation process.  Here is my experience.  I don't have an answer yet but will let you know when I do...

The CD ISOs were posted before the DVD when I went to download, so I ended up getting the CDs.  I then unpacked them into per-CD directories (which was probably my downfall) and shared them on the network so that I could install on my client machine without burning CDs.

After successfully installing the prerequesites and spending some time on the VS portion, I got a 'file not found' error.  The offending file was "_15777_RTL_x86_enu_VSD_Common.cab" which happens to be on the second CD.  I imagine the problem was that the system couldn't offer a "please insert the next CD" message from a network directory install.  My only option was to allow the installation to roll back which happened gracefully

Now comes the problem...  Subsequent attempts to install have resulted in an empty license key instead of the default trial key.  My guess is this is how they keep users from re-installing the trial after the 180-day evaluation ends.  I know I'll be able to work around this but for now, I can't install the VSTS trial on my primary notebook!

Now off to the to look for a solution!

Follow-up...  I tried to use the same installation directory on a different machine and got the same blank key.  So...  I blew away the installation directory and re-extracted all three CDs into one place and did the installation from there.  This time everything worked.  Note that when you combine the three CDs into one there are files that get overwritten.  They don't seem to have made any difference in my installation.  Better solution - use the DVD image!