Feeling a bit of Deja Vu? Well, yes, this is about the third time I've run a very similar post but I just noticed that the April CTP for SQL Server 2005 Express Edition is available, so here we go again! New with the April CTP, you can self-nominate in the TAP program. Complete this survey and if you are selected to participate, you'll be able to get SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition CTPs directly from Microsoft.

Please be sure to read the release notes for this version since a lot has changed over time.

Finally, if you've been waiting saying “oh, I'll wait for Beta 3,“ don't! This is the version to begin your testing and playing with.

A frequent question I see on the various news groups goes something like this one: "Is it possible to download SQL Server 2005 for practice? Is there like student edition available for nominal fee? Subscribing to MSDN is very expensive for an individual."

Actually you can get all you need for "free.^*" I'll point you at the most current stuff. As a reminder, this is unsupported beta software. Do not install it on a machine that you care much about being able to not uninstall it cleanly from (think FDISK, ok). It is best to install it to a virtual host (like VirtualPC), or make a really good backup first. Why? Uninstalling this software -- while not hard -- is order of component removal sensitive as talked about here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=97383299-E74B-4AF8-90C7-FA0CA20A10C4&displaylang=en

First, make sure you are running on an OS and hardware configuration that meets the minimum requirements:

• Supported Operating Systems: Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Windows 2000 Professional Edition , Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Professional Edition with Service Pack 2. Note that Windows XP Home, Windows NT, Windows Me and Windows 9x are not supported at this time.
• Intel Pentium III or compatible 550-megahertz (MHz) or higher processor (1 gigahertz or more recommended). Certain non-Intel processors like the Transmeta and some odd-ball AMD chips have been problematic in the past.
• 256 megabytes (MB) of RAM (512 MB or more recommended for sure.)
• 1.3 GB of available hard disk space.

With that said, I normally recommend installing these bits in this order:

1. The .NET framework version 2.0.50215.44 from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=44381
2. The SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (SSX) bits, version 9.0.1116 from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=46&p=3&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=97383299-e74b-4af8-90c7-fa0ca20a10c4&genscs=&u=http%3a%2f%2fdownload.microsoft.com%2fdownload%2fe%2f1%2f1%2fe1196b19-de92-4ab2-bafd-5b5ad26e67b4%2fSQLEXPR.EXE
3. Express Manager (XM) from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3212A9A2-B658-4710-B04E-8A28355F836D&displaylang=en
4. The SQL Server 2005 Books online from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=40&p=1&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=97383299-e74b-4af8-90c7-fa0ca20a10c4&genscs=&u=http%3a%2f%2fgo.microsoft.com%2ffwlink%2f%3fLinkId%3d31046.
5. You may also want to download and install the AdventuresWorks database to work with. There's a long posting in blog covering that. See http://sqljunkies.com/WebLog/ktegels/articles/installawdbssx.aspx

Note that this version is pretty much stand alone. If you want/need a rich "developer's environment," you may want to look at using one of the Visual Studio Express products instead (see http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/.) They ship with and install their own version of the .NET runtime and SSX, so there's no need to download and install them separately.

^* Note that SSX isn't the full version of SQL Server 2005 and those differences are covered in the Express White Paper at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnsse/html/sseoverview.asp. That said, SSX is a great way to get started. By free, I mean that there's no charge to download or license to buy.