When starting Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio after installing it from the SQL 2005 Enterprise disk, I get the error
 cannot create a stable subkey under a volatile parent key
I click Continue and the get another warning box
Failed to open connection dialog. Unable to cast object of type 'Microsoft.SqlServer.Managemt.UI.ConnectionDlg.Personalization' to type 'Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.ConnectionDlg.Personalization'.(ConnectionDlg)

Since I cannot use the old Enterprise Manger that we had for SQL 2000, I now have no way to manage the SQL via GUI. Anyone have any ideas for a fix for this?

Run setup first try repair option see if it works if not uninstall and reinstall. Another thing copy the contents of the CDs into your hardrive before running setup. Hope this helps.

I'm getting the same thing. Happened during installation, also while using. bhopkins reported the same thing, said uninstaslling and reinstalling does not help. Has anyone seen any other info on this?

I was getting the second message on startup.  I removed the express version of Management Studio and corrected

Apparently there is a problem caused by SQL Books Online mixing up with Management Studio, as I reinstalled Management Studio to no avail.

Removing SQL Books Online was not enough in my specific case. I had to remove Management Studio as well. Ldubois, I noticed you did so as well. Did you have SQL Books Online installed also?

Just to be safe, I rebooted after removing SQL Books Online and Management Studio..

Then I reinstalled Management Studio & it works (the pesky startup exceptions went away).

There is another related problem, and that is choosing 'File -> Open -> File' from the Management Studio's menu bar & receiving a nice AV and app exit.

I have not reinstalled SQL Books Online, as likely that will resurface the problem.

For me, the procedure I just described resolved these seriously easy to find bugs that made it out of Microsoft.

Hope this helps. Happy New Year 2007!:))

-yoshiro (mark) aoki

I know this is old. but here is a KB article with the solution.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922214

I know that this is still old, but I just got this problem, and tracked down the problem by using SysInternal's ProcessMonitor. Essentially, I deleted the HKCU\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server key in the registry. This problem went away, as did the crashing when you press Ctrl+O bug.

 

 Deleting the registration key as mentioned by rlipscombe worked for me. But there's a slight change in the key path. it's HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Microsoft SQL Server. Before you delete the make sure that you create a back up of that by right-clicking it and selecting export and saving to a file, just to be on the safe side in case deleting that key creates any other problem. Next time you start Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (Express) it should automatically configure as if it's starting for the first time.