Visual Studio 2010 SP1 error: silverlight_sdk.msi not available

I have been trying to install Visual Studio 2010 SP1 on my computer, which runs on Windows 7 Ultimate. In fact, I already had SP1 on my computer, but when I try to install Windows Phone 7.5 SDK, it was failing saying some required components were missing. So I decided to reapply the SP1 on Visual Studio. I think the fundamental problem was, I recently uninstalled Visual Studio Lightswitch, which removed some required components from Visual Studio, but not really sure.

I tried installing and uninstalling Visual Studio 2010 SP1 and each time the installation was stuck with the message:

The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable.

Click OK to try again, or enter an alternate path to a folder containing the installation package 'silverlight_sdk.msi' in the box below.

I could not locate the silverlight_sdk.msi anywhere on my computer and could not download it from the web either. I really visual the Visual Studio SP1 installer was smart enough to go and find it from its home!

I downloaded the web installer and regular .iso image of the VS 2010 SP1 and downloaded various Silverlight tools and SDK hoping that will resolve this error. All of my efforts to install Visual Studio 2010 SP1 failed with the error in finding silverlight_sdk.msi.

I almost gave up on installing Visual Studio 2010 SP1, but finally I found a solution that worked!

If you are getting the error "silverlight_sdk.msi not found" while installing the Visual Studio Service Pack 1, follow the steps below:

1. Download "Microsoft Silverlight 4 Tools for Visual Studio 2010, but do not install.

2. Rename the downloaded installer file "Silverlight4_Tools.exe" to "Silverlight4_Tools.rar".

3. Extract the .rar file using tools like 7zip.

4. You can find the file silvelright_sdk.msi in the extracted files.

5. Go back to your Visual Studio 2010 SP1 installer. If you are still on the error window, click the browse button to browse and choose the silvelright_sdk.msi from the folder where you extracted the files.

In my case, the installation process completed smoothly after I followed the above steps.

Did this solution work for you? Post your feedback. I think Microsoft should know how frustrating this experience is and they should make the installation process much more smooth.