<p>Running VISTA 32bit.</p>

<p>I am trying to install c# Visual Express 2008 - but it requires .NET 3.5. One of the prerequisites during the install is .NET 3.5 ... it attempts to install it but fails, with no real error message.</p>

<p>So I downloaded .NET 3.5 standalone from MS website and tried that.Again it fails with the error </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>[10/17/08,23:17:07] WapUI: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0SP1 (CBS) is not installed.
  [10/17/08,23:50:55] Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0SP1 (CBS): [2] Error: Installation failed for component Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0SP1 (CBS). MSI returned error code 34</p>
</blockquote>

<p>I currently have c# Express edition 2005 installed. But everything I read says that I can have these two applications installed together. I believe that 2005 runs Framework 2.0. 2005 express edition works fine. - its just the 2008 edition im having problems installed the .NET 3.5 with ....</p>

<p>any ideas ? thanks</p>

Have you ever installed any of the pre-release versions of 3.0 or 3.5?  I had a lot of trouble installing 3.5 until I realized that I had installed a CTP of WPF.  Go through all of your Microsoft and .NET installs in Add/Remove programs and make sure that you don't have any pre-release versions.