Installing Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express in Windows Vista or Seven: Error 29506.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008 14:47

This is a problem about privileges. Probably the installer performs the latests tasks without using elevation.

Solution is very simple: run the installer from an elevated command prompt.

  1. Click Start.
  2. Type “cmd” end press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER and accept the elevation.
  3. Execute the installer from there (just type path and filename).

This works on Windows Vista and, of course, on Windows 7.

If using a 64 bit version, please note you will have to use the 64 bit version of cmd.exe, which is located in c:\Windows\SysWoW64 instead on c:\Windows\System32, so just write “c:\Windows\SysWoW64\cmd” instead of just “cmd” (thanks to Pierre Boucher for this)

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29 Responses to “Installing Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express in Windows Vista or Seven: Error 29506.”

  1. tqz says:

    May 22nd, 2008 at 1:13 am

    working! Very good and thanks a lot for tooltip !

  2. Magneton says:

    June 30th, 2008 at 11:31 am

    Working very vell! Thx.

  3. Gerard says:

    July 6th, 2008 at 11:40 am

    I did this and it worked, thanks so much i just installed vista a few hours ago and you saved my life, i was about going back to xp, but could you tell me this doesnt cause any problem creating dbs and developing an aplication from visual studio and windows vista?

  4. Sid says:

    July 7th, 2008 at 5:15 pm

    Yes, it does not create any problem creating dbs and developing applications.
    The only thing that is different from Windows XP is that if you want to put the mdf file inside a user directory (i.e. c:\users\username\documents) you will need to manually set the ACLs.

  5. Sheetal says:

    August 3rd, 2008 at 8:55 pm

    Thanks for this tip. This was helpful

  6. Pierre Boucher says:

    August 17th, 2008 at 5:42 am

    Thanks! I must add that if you have a 64bit Vista like mine, you need to use the 64bit version of the cmd program. To do that, just write the full path to the application (ex: c:\windows\syswow64\cmd). The rest of the procedure is the same.

  7. Jacob Sandin says:

    August 19th, 2008 at 8:16 am

    Hi I had no problem installing the x64 SQL with elivated 32bit cmd.exe.

    But I had no idea that both 32bit and 64bit existed. Thanx for that info Pierre.

  8. Tino says:

    September 3rd, 2008 at 11:18 am

    Thanks!

    This helped me out :)

  9. Mike says:

    October 7th, 2008 at 11:03 pm

    isn’t the 64bit cmd.exe confusingly in system32? I remember reading that recently

  10. 5roofNono says:

    January 10th, 2009 at 5:25 pm

    yeaaaaaaaa, i worked good
    thanxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

  11. fasii says:

    January 14th, 2009 at 5:46 am

    I have same message when I was trying to install Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express: Error 29506,

    I love guys for that tip, by using “cmd“ it’s working now great thanks

  12. Mannish says:

    March 3rd, 2009 at 11:09 pm

    Great tip, thanks!

  13. cosophy says:

    March 18th, 2009 at 1:40 pm

    ok well done!

  14. Eng.Ahmad Othman says:

    March 28th, 2009 at 2:41 pm

    It works, thank you very much….

  15. Imran says:

    April 17th, 2009 at 11:21 pm

    It worked!!!

  16. Jeroen Bakker says:

    April 20th, 2009 at 10:19 am

    SUPER!!! Trick.

    One other problem, when i type cmd.exe in vista, it opens, then disappers. But I managed to open up another prompt anyway

  17. Ryan says:

    June 26th, 2009 at 12:42 am

    Great tip. Was a little confused about the ctl+shift+enter, but the realised that you open the command prompt with that key combo once its highlited. thanks again.

  18. Sid says:

    June 26th, 2009 at 3:31 pm

    @Ryan: Nope. CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER launches the executable / file you typed with elevation.
    The command prompt opens because you typed “cmd” (that stands for command prompt).

  19. Daryl says:

    July 16th, 2009 at 12:15 am

    Worked for me. This type of permission issue should have been addressed by MS. :)

  20. Sam says:

    July 23rd, 2009 at 4:28 pm

    sort and sweet, excellent!

  21. Robert says:

    August 24th, 2009 at 3:40 am

    Worked like a charm! Thanks!

  22. Applehead says:

    September 7th, 2009 at 9:43 pm

    Thank you! Same problem persists in windows 7, and this trick works perfectly :-)

  23. io says:

    September 28th, 2009 at 1:48 am

    i cant used it i dont know why
    i dont know what to do
    how do i write de path or de filename
    what do i have to write… help me
    im a disaster

  24. patibandha says:

    December 1st, 2009 at 7:39 pm

    thanks man.. this work for me in case of window 7 64 bit

  25. chris M says:

    December 13th, 2009 at 1:18 am

    For Windows 7 you have to use the 64 CMD and then run this as administrator. So I did the following…
    1. Right click on desktop and click NEW – SHORTCUT
    2. Create shortcut to C:\Windows\SysWOW64\cmd.exe
    3. Right click on the new shortcut and Run AS ADMINISTRATOR
    4. Enter full path and file name:
    e.g. C:\Users\[YOUR NAME]\Downloads\SQLServer2005_SSMSEE_x64.msi
    Where [YOUR NAME] is the windows user you are using.

  26. IceMan says:

    December 18th, 2009 at 10:07 am

    Hello Chris..

    There are lot of solutions published on many sites but none explained in detail for Windows 7, (like mention specific to use 64bit of cmd.exe) I was using the normal cmd but was erroring out. This worked for me. Thanks a lot.

  27. Anonymous says:

    December 21st, 2009 at 8:47 pm

    Thanks Chris M

    Yes this works awsome on 7 64 bit

  28. megy says:

    January 24th, 2010 at 11:02 pm

    I have the same problem on win 7. Can anyone help me? I did not manage to solve this problem bye my self.

    My mail is megy1985@hotmail.com and hope that someone will read this and try with TeamViewer get in my computer and fix it. I am hopeless :o (

  29. vishal says:

    February 10th, 2010 at 7:55 pm

    Interestingly, the solution on this page didn’t work for me verbatim. Instead I had to browse to the folder containing the 64 bit version of cmd and then right click the executable and select Run as administrator. I accepted the elevation and then ran the msi for SQL Server Management Studio – This did the trick.

    Thanks to all for posting the solution!

    Whoops – Just noticed that Chris M also posted a similar solution.

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