you can ignore any files called placeholder.txt, they're there to ensure that folder structures remain intact when we zip up core releases (many of these folders have optional content).

As for portals.resources, it's a file that is used during install to determine portal resources. it should have been there when you unzipped the folder, perhaps the zip file was corrupted in some fashion or the file deleted by accident (I don't have any other reports of this, so i don't think it's a core problem) I would recommend you download a new copy (i'd recommend the install version), and try again.

Cathal

sorry, i've just released that portal.resources is an optional file (in my test setup I keep a copy there to test adding additional portals during install). It's likely your issue is with the web.config file not being correctly formatted - I'd recommend opening it in visual studio.net/VWD if you have either, or else you can take a copy, rename it with an xml extension and open it in internet explorer and it'll indicate where the non-valid xml is.

Cathal