SQL Server Management Studio Express

Posted Monday, May 8, 2006 8:38 AM by C-Dog's .NET Tip of the Day

If you haven't bothered installing SQL Server Management Studio because you either don't have the disc or didn't want to deal with SQL Server 2005, you are missing out. Microsoft has now released SQL Server Management Studio Express as a free seperate download.

Although SQL Server Mangement Studio isn't perfect for working on everything on existing SQL Server 2000 servers, it is great for doing most things such as looking at data and creating stored procedures. Download it today and check it out. If it doesn't do everything you need, you can always use Enterprise Manager for those tasks.

SQL Server Management Studio Express

On another note, have you tried out using SQL Server Express. It is surprising powerful and Microsoft has now provided what they call advanced services which includes Reporting Services and Full-Text Search. Although, you can't host a large enterprise application with it, it is great if you need a simple database for your website, or need a place to store data with a Windows Forms application (it can even be bootstrapped to a Click Once Install). Try it out today. Note, if you want to set the instance name or enable mixed mode authentication, I recommend doing a custom install.

SQL Server 2005 Express

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