Exchange Server '12' requires Microsoft Management Console 3.0 [Digg.com This!]

Today I was installing an Exchange 12 Community Technology Preview (CTP) release and came across the following message:

"Exchange Server '12' requires Microsoft Management Console 3.0"

That was even though I was installing on Windows 2003 Server R2 64 bit (which already comes with MMC3) and also took the precaution to install it!

Turns out Exchange 12 CTP requires an earlier version of MMC3 so it doesn't think it's installed.

Thanks to Jim McBee's Blog I was pointed to a post by Nino Bilic, one of the MS Exchange team:

Resolving MMC 3.0 errors when installing Exchange 12 CTP release

This involves either installing an earlier version or setting a simple reg key. Thanks Jim and Nino!