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 SQL Server Management Studio Expres...
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SQL Server 2008 Books Online
SQL Server Management Studio Express

Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMSE) provides a graphical management tool for SQL Server 2008 Express (SQL Server Express), SQL Server 2008 Express with Advanced Services, and (SQL Server Compact 3.5). The SSMSE user interface is a subset of SQL Server Management Studio that is available with other editions of SQL Server 2008.

You must install .NET Framework 2.0 and MSXML 6.0 Parser before you install SSMSE.

You can download SSMSE from this Microsoft Web site.

SSMSE is different from the complete SQL Server Management Studio in the following ways:

  • SSMSE cannot manage Analysis Services, Integration Services, or Reporting Services.
  • You cannot update the full-text catalog by using SSMSE. You can use sqlcmd utility or Windows Scheduler to update the full-text catalog.
  • Interactive Resolver, which lets you resolve conflicts manually during on-demand synchronization in Microsoft Windows Synchronization Manager, is not supported in SSMSE.
  • SSMSE does not support scheduling administrative tasks by using SQL Server Agent.
  • In SSMSE, Object Explorer only supports Database Engine instances. The Connect to Server dialog box prevents connecting to other services, such as Analysis Services.
  • Because SSMSE is a subset of SQL Server Management Studio, all objects that would normally be enumerated for a specific Database Engine Object Explorer tree are still visible in SSMSE. If it is an object for an unsupported item, only the refresh command is available.
  • Help for SSMSE is not installed by the product. If you press F1, MSDN Online help opens. Pressing F1, you are able to access all F1 help topics, but you do not see a table of contents or an index for the SQL Server 2008 documentation. To add SQL Server 2008 documentation to SSMSE, install SQL Server 2008 Books Online from SQL Server Books Online Download Center. After installing, in the Contents pane of the Books Online, you can use the SQL Server Express filter to hide the content that does not apply to SQL Server Express edition.
    Important:
    When you press F1, the topics that open may refer to user interface elements or features that are not supported by SSMSE. This is because the documentation was written for SQL Server Management Studio, which is installed with SQL Server 2008.

To connect to a SQL Server Express Database Engine instance by using SSMSE, in the Connect to Server dialog box, specify any of the following:

.\sqlexpress, (local)\sqlexpress, or server name\sqlexpress

Note   The default installation of SQL Server Express uses an instance name (SQLExpress). This instance name must be supplied to connect to SQL Server Express by using SSMSE. If you have an instance name other than SQLExpress, connect by using computer name\instance name.

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Getting SQL Server 2008 Assistance
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Correct Link for SQL Server 2008 Express with Tools, Including Management Studio      Tai Yee -- MSFT   |   Edit   |  

Please note -- The link in this topic is incorrect and currently points to the 2005 version of SSMSE. You can download the 2008 version from:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7522a683-4cb2-454e-b908-e805e9bd4e28&DisplayLang=en

Apologies for the error; this topic will be corrected in an upcoming Documentation Refresh.

Tai Yee

Microsoft

Users will download SQL Server Management Studio Express 2005 while the link is available      Sleepless in Seatle   |   Edit   |  
Perhaps it would be prudent to disable the link in the mean time to reduce user frustration. Users who do not scroll down to discover that the 2008 version is not yet available are bound and determined to download and install the 2005 version anyway--only to discover that it is not compatible with SQL Server 2008 Express Edition.
Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition      Jordan Rieger   |   Edit   |  
I just installed Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition, and it included SQL Server 2008 Express Edition, which upgraded my existing SQL Server 2005 Express Edition database without asking. Now I can't access the database because the existing 2005 Management Studio won't connect to it. Any ideas? Any ETA on when the 2008 Management Studio Express will be released?
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Workaround      Jordan Rieger   |   Edit   |  
I was able to work around my issue by installing the 3rd-party tool SQLDBX (http://www.sqldbx.com/) which was able to connect to the SQL 2008 database. Then I clicked Tools > Generate Scripts... to make a SQL script to recreate my tables, keys, relationships, indexes, etc. (In my case I did not care about the data, only the structure.) Then I uninstalled SQL Server 2008 Express, reinstalled SQL Server 2005 Express, and recreated the database using the script.
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Please update this page to be correct and remove link if studio 2008 is not yet available      pigsie ... Tai Yee -- MSFT   |   Edit   |  

I've just wasted the best part of the day - first I downloaded management studio 2005 only to find out it does not work with 2008 - then came here read the comments followed the link provided which *does not* point to the correct version of management studio. Only from the other posters comments can I deduce that it is not available and therefore I think this page should state clearly that it is not yet available and offer alternative solutions. Does this mean I have to acutally uninstall SQL server express 2008 and install 2005 just so that I can use managemet studio? What a joke!

[Tai Yee - MSFT] Sorry for the bad experience you had. As I mentioned in the first Comment to this topic above, the correct download for SQL Server 2008 with Management Studio is at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7522a683-4cb2-454e-b908-e805e9bd4e28&DisplayLang=en. This topic will be corrected in an upcoming refresh of the entire Books Online.

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