Sql – Visual Web Developer 2008 Express wanting SQL Server 2005 instead of 2008

Although you should have no problem running a 2005 instance of the database engine beside a 2008 instance, The tools are installed into a shared directory, so you can't have two versions of the tools installed. Fortunately, the 2008 tools are backwards-compatible. As we speak, I'm using SSMS 2008 and Profiler 2008 to manage my 2005 Express instances. Works great.

Before installing the 2008 tools, you need to remove any and all "shared" components from 2005. Try going to your Add/Remove programs control panel, find Microsoft SQL Server 2005, and click "Change." Then choose "Workstation Components" and remove everything there (this will not remove your database engine).

I believe the 2008 installer also has an option to upgrade shared components only. You might try that. Good luck!

I ran into this problem too on 64-bit Windows 7 (using 64-bit SQL Server Express 2008).

There are two methods of fixing this problem referenced in the Microsoft Support Knowledge Base article:

1. Workaround

To work around this problem, uninstall the 64-bit version of SQL Server Express 2008, and then install the 32-bit version of SQL Server Express 2008.

If you don't want to do the uninstall/install, then try the Hotfix method below.

2. Hotfix

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft. However, it is intended to correct only the problem that this article describes. Apply it only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

Although the article itself doesn't include a link to the hotfix, you can get it here: http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=957944