Install Visual Studio 2005 Extensions in windows XP or Vista

If you try to install the Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools (VSeWSS) on a workstation,It would probably fail and throw the following error:

This product can only be installed if Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 has been installed first.

SharePoint 2007 or MOSS  is a server product and as such it can only be installed on the Windows Server family platform and it can’t be installed in windows XP or vista. There is a work around to solve this issue. Simply do the following registry setting.

1.  Click Start -> Run -> regedit and click OK.
2.  Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, expand SOFTWARE, expand Microsoft, expand Shared Tools.
3.  Right click Web server extension, click new. Then click key, type 12.0
4.  Right click 12.0 click new, click string value and type Sharepoint
5.  Right click sharepoint, click modify, Type Installed in value data field.

 That’s it. Restart the installation and it should work like a charm. Happy coding.

 This article is from http://www.allaboutmoss.com/index.php/2010/03/22/install-visual-studio-2005-extensions-in-windows-xp-or-vista/