Installing the vs 2008 fail with the reason that "[02/20/11,10:06:04] Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 For Devices: [2] Error: Installation failed for component Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 For Devices. MSI returned error code 1603". The root reason is the error setting of the path of "Personal", "Favorities", "My Pictures" in the regedit. Solution: Open the "Regedit" and search "[HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/User Shell Folders]" and reset the path. For example, for "My documents", set "X:/My Documents" to "C:/Documents and Settings/当前用户/My documents" (That's the method on the windows xp system). Rerun the tool and try again. More relation solution see error: "Error 1324. The path My Documents contains a invalid character."