Blue Stop Error and System Crash When Installing ACT! by Sage 2010

	Question
	You are installing ACT! 2010 and receive a blue stop error and the system crashes and loops indefinitely.
	Answer
	This issue has been reported to occur in a VMware® specific virtual environment if the host machine is Windows® XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). The issue will occur when installing SQL Server® Express 2005 Service Pack 3 (SP3), which is a component of the ACT! install. You can resolve this issue by updating your Window XP VMware Session to Windows XP Service Pack 3 and the issue should not persist when attempting to install ACT!. For more information on making changes to VMware sessions, please refer to your VMware documentation or visit VMware.com. This issue also has been reported to be resolved with applying a Microsoft Hot Fix. Bypassing the system crash will first require booting the computer into Safe Mode. Please use the following steps to resolve: Boot Windows into Safe Mode (use F8 during system boot and scroll to that selection). Once Windows has successfully booted, disable the service for the ACT7 instance: Click the Windows Start button, and then click Run. The Run dialog box appears. Type services.msc into the Open field, and then click OK. The Services panel appears. Locate the SQL Server (ACT7) service. Right-click the SQL Server (ACT7) service from the Name column, and then click Properties from the shortcut menu. The SQL Server (ACT7) Properties (Local Computer) dialog box appears: Click the Startup type field, and then click Disabled from the drop-down list. Click Apply, and then click OK. Restart the computer in normal mode and uninstall the SQL Server ACT7 instance. For more assistance on manually removing the ACT7, please refer to the following Knowledgebase Answer: How to Manually Remove the ACT7 Instance of SQL Answer ID: 23401 Download and apply the Microsoft Hot Fix from HERE. Attempt to install ACT! NOTE: This issue has also been reported to occur outside of VMware virtual environments. ACT! 2010 installs with SQL Express 2005 Service Pack 3 (4035). The installing components of SQL include Microsoft®  VSS Writer. This service installs as a function of the SQL install and the VSS Writer Service is set to Automatic (started) during the ACT! 2010 installation. On certain Windows XP Service pack 2 environments, this can trigger a blue screen booting loop. To correct this, boot into Safe mode and set the service to Disabled. You will still want to either apply the Microsoft offered hot fix files and or apply XP Service Pack 3.