I posted a similar question a week ago but never received a response, so I
thought I would try one last time. I would sincerely appreciate any guidance
anyone can provide. I'm a total newbie to InfoPath, but a capable novice with
Access.

I'm trying to generate a stand-alone form (as a self installing msi package)
that I can email to someone, have them complete, return the form to me, and
upload their data to an Access database that the form template is based on.
From what I've read, this approach seems possible as long as I send each user
the msi package to install the form template with the fully-trusted form.
QUESTION 1: is this approach truly possible? if so, please read on......

I created the Infopath 2003 form complete with the connections to the
primary and secondary tables and ran the regform utility (Infopath 2003 SDK)
and successfully created the js file, but I cannot create a msi version. I
receive an error that indicates that MS Visual Studio .Net is not installed.  
OK, I understand I need Visual Studio .Net but which one and which version?

At this point, I'm really confused.  There are all sorts of Visual Studio
products (Express, Professional, Database Professionals, Team Suite, Team
Server, etc) and versions (2003, 2005, 2008). In addition to the variety of
the VS products/versions, there is also amibuguity with the variety of Office
packages out there (e.g., SDK, VSTO), the version of the .NET framework (2.0,
3.0, 3.5) and how it all fits together. There seems to be a lot of
specifictiy in the dependencies and what works with what, and the order in
which things need to be installed. Given the "enormity" of some of the
downloads, haphazardly downloading and installing these products would not be
a trivial effort.  In fact, I've already tried some without success.

Can someone please tell me which of the packages or combinations of that I
need to actually create the msi file from the InfoPath 2003 form? At this
point this is the singular need.

Any help at all would be appreciated.