I’ve been tasked with designing the end-user side of SCSM at our company, including building the web page users will use to submit helpdesk tickets and build the workflows behind the scenes. So I went to install the SCSM Authoring Tool on my Windows 7 box, and every time it would break in the same spot, telling me “VS Shell 2008 SP1 is not installed”. I followed the prerequisite list exactly and in order, yet it still told me this, even after rebooting. The solution? Thanks to HuguesDePayns’s posting on TechNet, it finally worked. Here’s what had to be done:

First, run the VS Shell 2008 SP1 installer found in SCSM_AuthoringTool_2010_SP1CDImagePrerequisitesVS2K8Shellenvs_shell_isolated.exe

When that’s finished, open a command prompt (as administrator) and enter the following command:

msiexec /i “CDImageSetupAuthoringTool.msi”

It runs quietly, showing the status as it goes, then suddenly it will stop. If there are no error messages, it’s installed, and you’ll see it in your Program Files under Microsoft System Center.

Enjoy!