I tried to install and setup DotNetNuke over the weekend with a complete lack of success. I am trying to install 4.5.3 using the Installation Wizard. Looking at the Installation Wizard is all well and good but it assumes that you actually get the damn thing to start in the first place. (eg Config not defined etc) It doesn't work if opening directly in IE (eg get error A name was started with an invalid character....) so I got it running to a degree by going through VisualWebDeveloper but each page loaded as Done with Errors. (eg Object not set to an instance) The creating database scripts never finished and sat for hours before I cancelled out. I am trying to install on Vista Home Premium. I have installed IIS 7 and SQLServer Express. I have tried following the install instructions for verions 4.4.1 as suggested in one forum post. There are too many conflicting posts on the forum and I shouldn't have to trawl through 35 pages in one thread which start from serveral versions prior and still not find anything useful to me. Surely the Installation Wizard is designed to allow the user the to omit the manual changes in WebConfig etc. as described in the 4.4.1 instructions.

Why isn't there a sticky post which gives a step by step account with pictures of what is necessary to install the LATEST version for the complete novice. I just wanted to get something to run to see how the interface feels to work in and then maybe start by designing a small website. There are mentions all over the forums about which dierctory to extract to, setting up virtual directories in IIS, creating databases (am I correct in thinking that there is already a default database provided in App_Data or is this for something completely different and if not then why all the talk of creating a new database). Do I have to extact the files to a sub folder of C:\Inetpub\wwwroot as some instructions say or to any directory of my choosing as others say. What permissions are necessary to set for Vista and where and for whom, which appear to be different to XP. Very frustrating and not at all intuitive.

Quote from Homepage -

Easily Installed – DotNetNuke can be up-and-running within minutes.  One must simply download the software from DotNetNuke.com, and follow the installation instructions.

Not in my experience - installation instructions??? Is this referring to the Documentation readme.txt or have I completely missed a link and expansive step by step instructions do exist for the version I have just downloaded?

This is probably just a general rant from a newbie but from reading several posts in the forums I am not alone. Surely part of expanding your user base is making it easy for newbies to work with your product.

The FAQ question Do I need  Programming Skills to use DNN? gets the answer - "No. DotNetNuke's overall design and features allow those with only basic computer skills to create dynamic and fully interactive data-driven web or intranet sites."

 In my book basic computer skills don't include knowing how to find my way around and set up IIS, knowing about user permissions and setting up databases. I don't mind having to do these but at least making it easy to find out how to do these things would be a good start.

I will probably eventually figure out how to do all this, but it just makes it really difficult when all the information is scattered around and in many cases is conflicting. A place where a newbie can go and get all this stuff would be very useful. I may never have my site hosted and it may end up being only a company intranet. My company is a small company, we don't have an IT department, and the site is just going to be a way of collecting and managing things like events, documentation, FAQs etc. Perhaps DNN is not the tool to use for this but I thought DNN sounded like an exciting thing to try out and to learn along the way. I picked DNN over some others because I had read that documentation was lacking in these others compared to DNN.

I realise that assumptions have to be made, but introducing a new feature like the Install Wizard and not explaining how to get it running or setting out the prerequisites for it to work and what it actually does, seems a bit self defeating. Not having up to date documentation for a new release, or how to deploy it on a new operating system makes life very difficult especially if the method of installation has significantly changed.

I don't think that your answer was flippant or unkind, pmichael, but an easily accessed resource that is a guide to setting up DNN from scratch without having to sift through a multitude of posts would be much appreciated.

Mitch, you have an error in your web.config file.