MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2008 fails to install
At the moment I’m rebuilding my laptop (don’t ask why). It’s the only machine I’ve got and as such has heaps of stuff installed on it. One thing I have installed is the MSDN Library. It’s invaluable for looking up .NET stuff when you’re not connected to the internet and can’t use the online versions of the MSDN Library. The version I’m using us for Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft has kindly made it freely downloadable now – that’s pretty cool.
Anyway, there seems to be some trouble with the ISO images that Microsoft has posted on their website. I can’t guarantee this 100% of course but a Google search has found a couple of web pages talking of people having this issue. Enough people seem to have this problem for it to not be client-side issues. I ran into the problem myself – during installation I got an error that included the text “The cabinet file ‘cab12.cab’ required for this installation is corrupt” – unlike the free download that’s definitely not cool.
I had downloaded the entire 2GB ISO image and used Nero 8 to burn it to DVD. I’ve been using Nero for years without any issues so I was confident the issue wasn’t with Nero (I’ve bought and paid for it because I think it’s the best CD/DVD burning software available). I checked the contents of the DVD and they appeared to be ok – I could open and read cab12.cab properly using Windows Explorer too. The installation failed again, even when I burned another copy of the ISO to another brand new DVD.
The next thing I tried was downloaded Daemon Tools Lite 4.12.1, the latest version at the time this article was written in March 2008. For those that haven’t used Daemon Tools before, you should give it a go next time you want to open or extract a disk image without having to burn the whole thing to a CD or DVD.
I mounted the image successfully and managed to do a complete installation of the MSDN Library without any problems at all. Very strange but it seemed to be the only way I could it installed. I’d be keen to hear if anyone else has this issue and whether or not using Daemon Tools fixes the issue for you!
3 Responses to “MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2008 fails to install”
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I have Vista 64 SP1.
Cab error installi MSDN library for VS2008.
I uninstalled Microsoft Document Explorer, the i run msdn library setup again and everything started working fine.
Hope this might help
cheers
XP Pro SP2
I had exactly the same symptoms with the cab12.cab during the MSDN Library installation. I also use Nero.
I downloaded the iso again and re-burned the DVD. This time it worked.
I use Comcast. Comcast recently was in the San Jose Mercury regarding their deliberate slowing down of downloading software. It takes a long time to download using the plug-in Microsoft forces you to use. I believe Comcast throttles the Microsoft download plug-in. Leave it to stupid Microsoft to use a plug-in that Comcast doesn’t like with no Plan B as an alternative. Because of the slow download, I suspect corruption can occur easily. I did not see a digest signature for comparison on the Microsoft download page.
cigno & petrula,
I’m sure your comments will help other people with the same issue – thanks!