Installing Sharepoint 2010 RTM on Windows 7

Long story short:

Tip: If you are installing Sharepoint Server 2010 RTM after uninstalling beta version you already had, then just follow this:

1. Ensure that you have renamed or deleted the websites in IIS 7.0 that were created by beta installation.
2. Follow- http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee554869(office.14).aspx
3. I did install Foundation Server (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=49c79a8a-4612-4e7d-a0b4-3bb429b46595) before the Sharepoint Server 2010 (from MSDN Subscription).

Long story long:

So, the news of Sharepoint being RTM’ed excited me as much as it would excite any above average and ardent follower of the product. I have been working quite a bit on the beta version. Learning my way around, getting trained and all that!

The one-stop link for Sharepoint 2010 beta installation was http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee554869(office.14).aspx – link 1

• So, before starting the installation of the RTM version, I uninstalled Foundation Server 2010 beta and Sharepoint Server 2010 beta.
• Downloaded and extracted the Sharepoint 2010 RTM from my MSDN subscription and extracted it into a folder.
• Like any installer/ developer just double clicked on the setup.exe.
• Boom it of course failed saying operating system not supported! So I backtracked and looked posted on forums and got the above link as response.
• I wondered a bit as to why Microsoft choose not to provide sufficient details in the accompanying readme. The readme with the RTM download contained just the below:

• And when you click on here, it takes you to office link with huge list of known issues and workaround. Did not find useful for installation of Sharepoint at all.
• Like a responsible citizen, logged on to connect.microsoft.com and logged a suggestion about the documentation- complaining about the helplessness of the same.
• And btw, all this while Foundation Server was still an unknown, I mean the download was not present alongside the Sharepoint 2010 on the msdn subscribers download list. Had to hunt for it in the forums.
• So downloaded that and installed it by following the instructions on the link 1 above.
• Installation was successful and configuration failed- boom

• I pondered a bit, searched the net, but finally applied common-sense. Since I had older web sites (web applications if you will- Sharepoint jargon) from Sharepoint 2010 beta installations, I just went ahead and renamed them with “old_” and ran the configuration wizard again from start -> All Programs -> Microsoft Sharepoint 2010 Products -> Configuration wizard.
• It worked! . Am not sure if it was common sense or beta-sense. Some beta uninstall/ cleanup should have helped here.

• So, after Foundation Server successful installation, I went ahead and ran the setup.exe from command prompt for Sharepoint 2010. The installation was successful.
• So, clicked on close to go ahead with the configuration wizard.

Bingo! It was successful!