Ok, good news: I got it installed on my server and all workstations, and my portable notebook;

What I learned:

do not uninstall SQL SVR and try to reinstall - this is how I lost program function on my previous server, and this is what AC support told me to do; what I did was repair the install on the server - not sure what file was written over, but it worked

importing the database from 5.029 into 6.09 is mysterious if you don't read the directions that the support site gives you - gotta follow the instructions; the step I overlooked was the Backup Restore Utility (the Lifesaver Ring icon) in the AC directory;
run that off the data backup (*.enc) just like the instructions say to; then run the Database Tuner; it was that simple to import the database

the other thing I did was log in as administrator (not as a power user with administrator settings); this seemed to make everything happen on day 4 of my learning process (gee whiz ...)

I will post next week on my success with Medisoft 17 and AC 6.09 interfacing using X-Link

Thank you to everyone - the AC forum support is great and we collectively are a terrific resource for each other