I have been doing a lot of tests with Rainbow and SQL Express attach files.  I finally got a test to pass that allows for rainbow to come pre-installed.  All the server need have is ASP.NET 2.0 and a SQL Server 2005 engine.  Please note that the SQL Server Express engine is free and can work with Rainbow 2.0 and attached files.  This is also good for development as module developers dont have to install Rainbow while developing; just simply attach.  You have to do one more step when you are finished however, and that is deattach.  If you plan to just use rainbow as a db attachment, you can leave it attached for better performace.  If you plan to scale rainbow out to a higher SQL Server 2005 edt [ say enterprise] and are using the attach file as a quick start [ something I love now ] ; then you must deattach the mdb file.  You also cannot have an mdf file of the same db/name in your SQL Server 2005 data directory.  Not to fret.  If youve never installed rainbow before then you have no problem.  You simply just need an engine. 

With that being said, expect another release for precompiled that allows this option.  You do not have to run the scripts agains the db for install at all and your portal is configured for default settings.  You will have to set the admin password in the db as we are working on registration.  However the default works.

Also expect a full developer version that has the core projects and code files for rainbow.  You can select to publish your site anywhere in VS 2005 and choose the option to precompile if you wish.  VS 2005 publishing is a nice litte tool as it just deploys your raw site without the project files and can also precompile