You should not see any signifigant locks - please review the following Microsoft document, in particular the part on "ONLINE"

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188388.aspx

A couple of handy Microsoft papers on the subject

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912439/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2001221

Gianluca is spot on, there were numerous bugs related to database mail up to SP3. It is best if you update to, at a bare minimum, Service Pack 3

Outside of a third party application, cmdshell is your only option.

What credentials are you using for the linked server? On the Security tab of the linked server, are you utilizing Impersonate or a Remote login?

Two plus year old post.

Can you look in the following location for any executables?

\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE

There is no way to limit the user from seeing available databases on a particular instance via ODBC. You can restrict access to those databases through user security.

Do you receive any type of message when you try to access the SSMS?

You just needed to take the jump to the following site - http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=184

I ran a trusty Google search and came up with the following, hope it helps.

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/michael_zilberstein/archive/2008/03/18/5629.aspx

Actually this snippit is much cleaner and easier.

SELECT name,crdate

FROM master..sysdatabases

Have you checked the firewall on the linked server? If it is enabled, turn it off to test, if that works, you will need to add the port 1433...

Both answers are correct, Gails is the most important in that there are only those files and they reused. If you are not at SP2 or higher you would...

You mentioned an error, can you be more specific on the error?

It's been a little while since I have installed 2005, so correct me if I am wrong. On the Components to Install step, click on the Advanced button. ...