hiya ive downloaded the files needed and expanded them but it wants me to change the SAPWD password in command prompt and im not sure how to do this. Please help

Here are a few notes I wrote myself from when I had to do it...

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MSDE
Link: http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...l2kdesksp3.exe

Ran exe to self extract. Went to "C:\sql2ksp3\MSDE" in command prompt and typed "Setup SAPWD=mypassword SecurityMode=SQL"

Used Run/SVRNETCN.EXE to change port from 1433 to ????.
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BTW - remember to apply patches/updates.

It might also complain that you haven't used a 'Strong Password' (especially if you have applied SP3a - as ACW suggests). Quite how it decides what a strong password is I don't know, but using a suitable mix of caps, lower case, numbers and punctuation with a total length > 10 chars seemed to do it for me

There's really good instructions for downloading and installing MSDE at this link:
http://www.asp.net/msde/Default.aspx?tabindex=0&tabid=1

It shows you how you can set the SAPWD at install, from the command prompt.