Web Platform Installer WebMatrix hanging when installing SQL Server System CLR Types

Last Friday I smoothly installed MVC 3 via the Microsoft Web Platform Installer. Having not used it before, I was impressed... it was quick and easy, though I did get a few reference related errors in Visual Studio shortly afterwards. Regardless, I decided to have a look at the other packages on offer. After reading a few posts on Scott Hanselman's blog, I skipped off on my merry way towards the WebMatrix package, so I could have a play with the new Razor engine with standard ASP.Net pages.

Unfortunately when selecting WebMatrix, the Web Platform Installer seems to hang on the first step (SQL Server System CLR Types [Step 1 of 5]):


I've tried it a few times - rebooting, closing all applications / non essential services etc, but nothing seems to help. After a little bit of digging, I figured out that the WPI keeps log files in the following directory:

C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Web Platform Installer\logs

One file in particular (\install\2011-01-17T10.41.03\SQLSysClrTypes.txt on my drive) seemed to increase in size without any progress in the installer. It looks like it was looping around the class ID's for the CLR types, though I can't be sure. Either way, it reached around 80Mb on my computer and hasn't moved from step 1. Cancelling the install didn't seem to make any difference either (it just added "User has canceled the current installation" to the Log.txt file), so the only way to stop it was by terminating the process.

After a quick Google, I found a blog by a fellow developer named Kevin LaBranche which may solve my issue. I'll report back if I hit any issues!

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