I decided to spend some time playing with ASP.NET MVC this weekend but the install wasn't as straightforward as I would have liked. I do not have Visual Studio 2008 so I've been relying on the express editions, and this somewhat complicated the process. Scott Guthrie's post mentions that Visual Web Developer Express 2008 does not support ASP.NET MVC preview 3 unless you install the SP1 Beta. Unfortunately, the link he provides in that post points to a post about the Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta, which kept giving me the following message when I ran it:
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (Beta) does not apply, or is blocked by another condition on your system. Please click the link below for more details.
I googled a bit and tried a few things and eventually discovered that there is a different service pack for the express editions: Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions Service Pack 1 Beta. No wonder I was getting that error message - I do not have any Visual Studio 2008 products installed! The existence of a separate service pack makes perfect sense and is pretty obvious if you think about it. Beware the dangers of mechanically clicking links and googling without thinking!
The MVC install went smoothly once I installed the Express SP1 beta.
