So, working on my first web app using ASP 2.  I had really only messed around with the mobile stuff during the betas.  My goal here is to see how robust the built-in controls and frameworks are.  On the surface everything seems very nice and configurable but we'll see what things are "toys" and what things are worthy of serious consideration.

Visual Studio installs SQL 2005 express by default.  This caused me some woe today since I uninstalled Express and installed Developer Edition instead.  Using the site admin tool, my AspNetSqlProvider is not working, and suggests I run aspnet_regsql.  Did that, did not fix it although it did create the membership tables in my SQL 2005 database.  Hmm, looking at machine.config and did a search for AspNetSqlProvider.  A connection string called "LocalSqlServer" is referenced everywhere and the value was...

<connectionStrings>

<add name="LocalSqlServer" connectionString="data source=.\SQLEXPRESS;Integrated Security=SSPI;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|aspnetdb.mdf;User Instance=true" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />

</connectionStrings>

Well then, that won't work if I just got rid of Express.  I suppose there really was no need to un-install express after all if its just an Access replacement and isn't running a service taking up my CPU cycles?  I'm just guessing by looking at the connection string here.

At any rate, in your web.config you can do the following

<connectionStrings>

<remove name="LocalSqlServer"/>

<add name="LocalSqlServer" connectionString="data source=BigFatLaptop\SQL2005;Your info here" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>

</connectionStrings>

and then it should work for you.  More observations as I get time to mess around.