Ok,

This is my last post.  I dont normally post at all, so Im sorry to be harassing the board, but I do have another question...

You say that this is for non-developers.  Being lazy, I purchased open smart module, which enables me to run an ordinary user control as a module.  But, should I want to create a module, why is this installation inappropriate for that?  Or do you mean that it is not appropriate for developing alterations to the core?

I suspect that this is really gonna turn out to be a stupid question.

... So I apologise in advance

Yes, I know about the starter kit.  I have even created a module (hello world type stuff)  with it once on an install I was able to do on a virtual PC (Microsoft VPC2004). 

But the starter kit requires that you have a working DNN install. 

My question is: Is there something about what your installer installed that is inappropriate for module development when used in conjuction with the kit?

You might ask why I dont just try it out and see for myself.  The reason is that, I am afraid of corrupting the install....  

THE TALE OF WOE BELOW, EXPLAINS WHY:

While Ihave some programming experience ( on mainframes and ASP) I have zero db and server admin experience. 

However, a while ago, having heard so many stories about the horrors of trying to create a development environment in DNN, and thinking I was really smart, I created my development environment in an otherwise virgin virtual PC using  Microsoft's free Virtual PC 2004.  It took a couple days of free time to get it working, but once I had it working I made backups of the various stages before beginning work on my first module (Hello world type stuff).

I thought... Im really smart.

But not for long....

Once I started really playing with module development,  after about 4 or 5 compiles, suddenly the DNN installation would try to upgrade itself.... It would go thru the re-install process and stopped with an error.   So, I figured that the entire "working environment " was "corrupted".  But having backups of the Virtual PC I uncompressed it, and start again.   But the problem repeated itself.  After 2 or 3 times, I gave up.... put the whole "module development" thing on hold till later.

But it was creating and maintaining the environment that stopped me. What little time I actually got to spend programming for DNN I liked.   When time permits ill force the problem to occur again on the Virtual PC, and then post the exact issue on the appropriate boards.

PS:
The virtual PC installs used the sql server express on essentially a blank pc, and did work,  but the virtual environment is just really slow.  Until your install utility, I had been having problem installing to my development machine with SQL server 2005.