Exception when opening new project VB 2008

Hi everyone - a newbie here (I can hear the groans all round :) ) I tried the search and FAQ's but could not find anything but maybe I get some terminology a bit wrong :afrog:

I am trying to get into some programming so have installed Visual Basic Express 2008 on an Vista Home Premium machine and can not get started at all.

When I open a new project (FILE>>New Project) I get some "visual Studio installed templates" Whenever I try any of them eg console application or Windows Forms application I get an error dialog box "Exception of type "System.Exception" was thrown.

I assume it is the templates that are not compatable or corrupted but I dont seem to be able to start without using the template. Any ideas if it is the template or something else or how to start without using one of the installed templates?

Be gentle with me.

Matt

Hmm - seems my templates are missing when following the path shown in Options> Projects and solutions>General - How do I get them or are they somewhere else?