SharePoint 2010 Beta Installation (Part 4): Installing KB971831

This is the forth post in a series of posts where I'm using numerous screen shots to walk you through the steps to install SharePoint 2010 and all its prerequisites such as OS, SQL Server, service packs, cumulative update packages, etc.

In the previous post we installed Windows Server 2008 (64 bit). In this post we'll install KB971831, which is one of the prerequisites for the installation of SharePoint 2010 Beta. Here is what happens if you don't install KB971831. As you'll see in the last post in this series of posts, we'll be provisioning what are known as service applications. If you don't install KB971831, when you try to access one of these service applications, you'll get an error message. This is because service applications make use of WCF to communicate with their clients. Due to a bug in this WCF code, this communication fails and consequently you get this error message. KB971831 basically fixes this bug. If you forget to install KB971831 for whatever reason, you can always install it later to fix the problem. The order of installation does not matter.

To install KB971831, you'll need to click the following link:

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Project/Download/FileDownload.aspx?ProjectName=KB971831&DownloadId=7285

This takes you to the following page:

Click "I Agree". This will pop up the following dialog:

Select Open and click OK:

Click OK to install KB971831:

Click Close. You're now done with the installation of KB971831.

In the next post, we'll remove the Windows PowerShell feature. You'll also learn why it is important to remove this feature before you attempt to install SharePoint 2010 Beta.