I know Crystal Reports is no peach to work with, but I've been fighting with Microsoft's report offering, SQL Report Services, today. I had lots of trouble getting to install on my Win 2003 server (laptop). Turns out it didn't like the VS.Net 2005 Beta -- specifically the .Net Framework 2.0 I was running. After some trial and error, I discovered unregistering the beta framework via:
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.40607\aspnet_regiis.exe -u (the -u switch uninstalls the framework)
and then registering the 2003 Framework via:
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\aspnet_regiis.exe -i (the -i switch installing this version)
was enough to get Reporting Services to play nice. This aspnet_regiis utility is very handy, and I've become intimate with it through many IIS debugging and configuration challenges. Good ol' RegIIS, or “Reggie” as we sometimes joke, comes to rescue.
Now that I can get the install to run to completion, I hope to see what all the fuss is about!