I am constantly presented with the "Portal failed to install", I've deleted, recreated, changed location, etc. been at this for days.  The ASP.NET account has full control and I've basically eased all security in order to get this thing to install but still get the "portal failed to install", when I click on the view portal link I get this:

Server Error in '/DNN' Application.

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Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Source Error:

[NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.]
   DotNetNuke.Entities.Portals.PortalSettings.GetPortalSettings(Int32 TabId, PortalAliasInfo objPortalAliasInfo) +114
   DotNetNuke.Entities.Portals.PortalSettings..ctor(Int32 tabId, PortalAliasInfo objPortalAliasInfo) +93
   DotNetNuke.HttpModules.UrlRewriteModule.OnBeginRequest(Object s, EventArgs e) +3721
   System.Web.SyncEventExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication+IExecutionStep.Execute() +60
   System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously) +87

HELP!!!!

Guys,

DNN will run using MSDE.  It will run with no new data providers on anything that supports SQL Server 7 SQL syntax. But there is more pain involved in getting MSDE set up correctly and ready for the connection.

There is a thread on here somewhere that deals with all the things you need to do to get your DNN installed with MSDE as a backend. Just search for installing MSDE.