Datasheet

2. This dialog box shows the order in which the installation takes place. To function properly,
Visual Basic 2005 requires that several updates be installed on your machine, such as Service
Pack 1 for Windows XP. The setup program will inform you if these updates are not installed.
You should then install any required updates before proceeding with the installation of Visual
Studio 2005. Step 1 installs Visual Studio 2005, so click the Install Visual Studio link.
Figure 1-1
3. After agreeing to the End User License agreement, click Continue to proceed to the next step.
4. As with most installations, you will be presented with an option list of components to install (see
Figure 1-2). You can choose to install only the features that you need. For example, if your drive
space is limited and you have no immediate need for Visual C++ 2005, you can exclude it from the
installation. You will also be given the chance to select the location of items (although the defaults
should suffice unless your particular machine has special requirements). Any option that is not
chosen at the initial setup can always be added later as your needs or interests change. However, if
you plan on developing database applications such as those discussed in Chapter 16, you should
choose to install SQL Server 2005 Express, which is the last option in the list.
Three sections of information are given for each feature:
❑ The Feature description box gives you an outline of each feature and its function.
❑ The Feature Install path section outlines where the required files will be installed.
❑ Finally, the Space Allocation section illustrates how the space on your hard drive will be
affected by the installation as a whole.
When you are running Visual Basic 2005, a lot of information is swapped from the disk to memory and
back again. Therefore, it is important to have some free space on your disk. There is no exact rule for
determining how much free space you will need, but if you use your machine for development as well as
other tasks, anything less than 100MB free space should be considered a full disk.
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