I got the same thing when trying to build VS 2005 in Windows 7 RC:
Fatal Error C1033: cannot open program database '' (with the database it couldn't open indicated as an empty string)
I had my shortcut to VS 2005 set to compatibility mode for Windows XP SP3. When I changed it to Windows Vista, I was able to build.
Fatal Error C1033: cannot open program database '' (with the database it couldn't open indicated as an empty string)
I had my shortcut to VS 2005 set to compatibility mode for Windows XP SP3. When I changed it to Windows Vista, I was able to build.