WinFX SDK killed my download

I am extremely keen on XML technologies. I don't claim to be an expert, but I think that they are pretty cool. Recently I have become more and more interested in the prospect of using Flash like technologies to boost the user experience on my web sites. My search led me to XAML. XAML is cool. I haven't actually written anything in XAML, but the demo's on the web are sweet.

What's that you're saying? Why haven't I written anything in XAML yet. I'll tell you why. Because it took almost 4 freak'n hours to get the stuff installed and return my machine to working order, that's why! I don't that kind time. Sure I love watching paint dry as much as the next guy, but seriously! James Robertson has any excellent Squidoo lense for XAML that includes a section on what you need to download and the installation order. Here's a break down of the installation steps and how long it took for each one.

1. WinFX Runtime Components - couple of minutes: This is all you need to view XAML files on your machine. But if your like me, and want to actually write an application you'll need the...

2. WinFX SDK - 3+ hours: Holy creeping downloads Batman! Its a good thing my hard drive had an extra gig of free space. I kid you not, 1.2 gigs. Maybe I should have limited what I wanted to install, but it all looked so delicious. This is why they shouldn't let me eat at buffets. The only thing that I turned off in the install was the 64-bit processor support and Monad (more on that later).

3. Optional Development Tools - 30 minutes: The install took longer than the download.

At this point I am already frustrated with the SDK install, but I made it through and thought that a reboot was in order. You don't have to reboot, I'm just weird. Anyway, I tried to open up a Powershell instance after the reboot and recieved an error. That's odd. Powershell was working before. Wait a minute, where's my powershell install directory?!!! I guess when I told the SDK not to install Monad (because I already had Powershell installed), THE SDK UNISTALLED POWERSHELL!!! I don't even know how. Monad installs under a completely different directory. So that led me to...

4. Microsoft Powershell RC1 - 5-10 minutes: PowerShell rules! Reinstalling sucks!

Alright now its time for a "hello world" application. Wish me luck.