Well ... I fixed one problem to step into another problem I guess.
In My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Templates\ProjectTemplatevisualwebdeveloper\visualbasic, there was a dotnetnuke.zip file after the dnn install. I simply pulled that .zip file out of there and placed it in My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Templates\ProjectTemplates\visualbasic folder and that problem was gone. TADA - I'd still like an explanation as to why this should matter because it works without this on my home computer just fine (and I didn't get the following SQl error). It's only at my work computer that it doesn't work. I actually installed on 2 different computers at work and it does exactly the same on both of them.
So now I an testing my (very weak) sql skills with the following...
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DotNetNuke Upgrade Error
The Assembly Version ( [ASSEMBLYVERSION] ) does not match the Database Version ( [DATABASEVERSION] )
ERROR: Could not connect to database.
Failed to generate a user instance of SQL Server due to a failure in starting the process for the user instance. The connection will be closed.
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The funny thing is I'm not upgrading at all. This is all brand new install here. So I've fixed that problem and if you (or anyone else outh there) can get me out of this problem and on my way to actually developing a website like I'm supposed to be working on, I'd appreciate it dearly!
I have downloaded a couple very handy utilities working with SQL Express.
1. SQL Express Utility .. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=FA87E828-173F-472E-A85C-27ED01CF6B02&displaylang=en
2. SQL Server Management Studio Express .. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C243A5AE-4BD1-4E3D-94B8-5A0F62BF7796&displaylang=en
These are VERY useful tools I didn't realize were available with the express edition and I hope I can get this figured out today!
thanks, Jonathan