I've seriously damaged my home pc. I was trying to get SQL Server Compact Edition version 3.1 to install and be accessible via my instance of Visual Studio.

You would think it was a simple task, after all, I had the Mobile Components installed, and could create smart device applications. You would think...

I'm not exactly sure what happened, but somehow, someway, I've utterly fubard my install of VS. Which means that I need to load up my VS Installer, and repair VS. Of course that doesn't work, and the installer just keeps complaining and crashing.

So, muttering under my breath, I go and uninstall all the .NET development tools from my box, and try to reinstall VS again.

And again, with the no love.

My next step is to try and kill the .NET Framework (and by that I mean versions 2, 3 and 3.5). Those just flat out refuse to remove themselves as they're still applications dependent upon them.

At which point I mutter evil things about Microsoft. I'm the administrator of my PC, I should be able to remove ANYTHING regardless of what depends on it.

Considering the implications of installing and repairing applications, I delete the contents of my TEMP folder. After all, that's where setup files reside after they've been unpacked by the installer. It's from there that the repair action repairs an installation.

Again with the no love.

At this point, I'm well and truly irked. I mean I can't do any development, as none of my tools are installed, and none of them will install.

Of course, because I'm a programmer, when I screw something up, I do it all the way. Somehow, I've managed to corrupt a dozen different applications and none of them work now. Everything from PhotoShop 5.5 (definitely a non-.NET app) to this little icon app called @IconSushi (which is a .NET 2.0 app).

So, what am I left with? The only thing left to do is slick my drive. Clear it of Windows entirely and start over. Which means that I now have to backup all my data.

And you'd think that as a programmer I'd be doing all this, as I know that good data retention relies upon it. But no, I'm not doing backups (my wife backs up her images to DVD but none of my files are done that way). And I got gigs upon gigs of data waiting to be backed up.

This is what I get to work on this weekend I guess. I just feel so lucky.