How to install the SharePoint 2007 VS 2005 Extensions on a Workstation

SharePoint 2007, or MOSS, is a server product and as such it can only be installed on the Windows Server family platform. I can understand that, it makes sense. What I can’t understand and doesn’t make any sense at all is that I’m not allowed to install the development tools on my new shiny Vista.

The recommendation for MOSS development was always to get a VM to run W2k3 with MOSS and Visual Studio. That’s all fine when you’ve to develop and do cycles of compile-deploy-debug, but what if you want to load an existing web part project with the visual studio installed on your workstation?

If you try to install the Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools (VSeWSS) on a workstation you’d probably fail and get the following error: “This product can only be installed if Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 has been installed first”. So the only thing we’ve to do is to hack the installer into thinking MOSS is installed. How difficult can it be, right?

Before continuing into opening the Regedit tool, be aware that mocking around with the Windows registry is not supported, not recommended and generally considered bad manners.

Now open the regedit and create the following keys and the string value:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0]

"Sharepoint"="Installed"

That’s it! You have fooled the installer into running on a workstation. Easy. I also recommend adding the core SharePoint assemblies into the CAG using gacutil. Those assemblies can be found by default in any ShaerPoint machine under the folder: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\ISAPI.

If you’re feeling adventurous enough and want to get the full remote debugging experience, try out this excellent Martin Vollmer’s post.