Service Pack 2 for all editions of SQL Server 2005 was released on Monday. Unfortunately for us .NET developers, the Visual Studio Bootstrapper we were hoping would ship with the release did not. Mike on the SQL Server Express team is working on it and hopes to release it by mid March. You can read more on his work here.

I'm not a patient guy so I decided to create my own. (After all, shouldn't I, since I've been raving about the bootstrapper as of late?)

Here's what it does:
1. Check if SQL Express is installed
2. If SQL Express is not installed, it install SQL Express SP2
3. If SQL Express RTM is installed, it upgrades RTM to SP2
4. If SQL Express SP1 is installed, it upgrades SP1 to SP2
5. If SP2 or later is installed, it does nothing

These checks are performed by my SqlExpressSP2 application. All these does is read the CurrentVersion value of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\SQLEXPRESS\MSSQLServer\CurrentVersion registry key.

I tested the boostrapper on installs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista business. The installs worked without problem. I created an installer for the bootstrapper, but it's file size was over 55Mb, a little to big to dump on the blog. So, if you want a the bootstrapper you'll need to create it yourself via the following steps:

1. Create the following directory: [drive]:\[program files]\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\BootStrapper\Packages\SqlExpressSP2.

2. Copy these files to the folder created in step 1 above:
     2.1. product.xml (.55 KB)

     2.2. SqlExpressSP2Chk.exe (16 KB)

3. Download SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Service Pack 2 from the download page

4. Create the following directory Create the following directory: [drive]:\[program files]\Microsoft Visual Studio 8

\SDK\v2.0\BootStrapper\Packages\SqlExpressSP2\en.

5. Copy the following files to the the direction created in step 4 above:
     5.1. SQLEXPR32.EXE (downloaded in step 3 above)

     5.2. package.xml (9.61 KB)

     5.3. eula.txt (8.03 KB)

To use the bootstrapper follow the steps:

1. Fire up Visual Studio 2005.

2. Create a Setup and Deployment project.

3. Go to the Projects menu and click Properties.

4. Click the Prerequisities button.

5. You should see an entry in the prerequisites list for SQL Server Express Edition SP2.

6. Select the prerequisite(s) you want and select the "Download prerequisites from the same locations as my application" option.

7. Click OK.

8. Click Apply and OK.

9. Build you Setup and Deployment project.

10. SQL Server Express 2005 SP2 will now be deployed with your application.

Hope this helps.

ag