Ssms-Tips-Tricks

When you close SSMS, the default action is that it checks each open window and makes sure there are no open transactions before it closes.

This is to allow you to decide what to do if you do have an open transaction, and based on that, to avoid losing any work.

While this sounds like a great idea, I mostly now work with Azure SQL Database, and my SSMS windows have been idle for long enough that I’ve lost the connection. So, when I close SSMS, it tries to check the transaction status against connections that are already closed under the covers.

2025-10-26

When I first installed v21 of SSMS, I was puzzled that many of the connection options in Object Explorer were greyed out:

Because I had been working on a preview version, I thought it just wasn’t there yet. But when I checked the release notes, I saw it should be there. The issue is that I hadn’t added the Business Intelligence workload.

You don’t do that from within SSMS. Instead, you need to run the Visual Studio Installer:

2025-10-24

I’ve been learning Mandarin (Chinese) for many, many years. I’m determined to become as fluent in speaking as I can, but to also be reasonable at reading and writing.

One important aspect of doing this, is to make sure you use the language you are learning as much as possible.

A great advantage of SSMS is that it is available for use in many languages. Yet when you do this, SSMS ends up supporting both the target language and English. That means that I can work part of the time in Chinese (to force myself to learn) and the rest of the time in English.

2025-10-22

SSMS has a concept of channels that are used to control releases of the product. You can find them described here .

You can have both Release and Preview channels installed on the same system.

Most people who are using the product in production scenarios want to have a supported stable release. They should use the Release Channel .

Other people, however, are keen to try the latest features as soon as they are available, even if they aren’t at a Release quality bar yet. They can use the Preview Channel .

2025-10-20

In the current version of SSMS, there is an option to provide feedback directly to the SSMS team. While you can just browse to the website, you can click this link in the top right-hand side.

At that point, you are given three options:

The first two end up in very similar locations, just with a different preselected context:

Make sure you search first to see if the problem has already been reported. As soon as you provide a title for your issue, the site does a search and shows you issues that are potentially related. If you see the same issue, you can click on it to go to the discussion and add your own comments there.   If the issue hasn’t already been reported, you can create a new issue. Make sure you provide a clear title, then detailed information about how to reproduce the issue. Finally, before submitting, make sure you indicate the impact you are experiencing:

2025-10-18

When you start SSMS, the default action at startup is to open Object Explorer. But you can change that behavior. The options to do that are in Tools. Options, then Environment, and Startup.

These are the options that are provided:

One that is often surprisingly useful is to open an empty environment. You might want to use SSMS to edit files without any connection to a database and not want to waste time waiting for SSMS to open the connection dialog, just for you to close it again.

2025-10-16

One challenge that I find with T-SQL is that there’s no 100% reliable way to drop a database.

I wish I was joking.

If you execute DROP DATABASE, the command will fail if anyone is connected to the database. The way that we normally drop databases is as follows:

USE master;
GO  

IF EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM sys.databases AS d WHERE d.[name] = N'somedb')
BEGIN
    ALTER DATABASE somedb SET SINGLE_USER WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE;
    DROP DATABASE somedb;
END;

That mostly works, but the problem is that I need to execute the command from the master database. That means that when I set the database to single user, I don’t know that I’m the single user. What I’ve seen happen sometimes, is that the Intellisense system in SSMS is reading further down my script, where I’m perhaps recreating the database, and it’s maintaining a connection to the DB.

2025-10-14

SSMS used to have a built-in web browser. That’s now gone.

What was added, though, is a Developer PowerShell window. On the View menu, you can choose Terminal.

This will then open a Developer PowerShell window:

Note that you can change the version of PowerShell that’s launched, from the drop-down. But the Settings option will take you to the Tools Options page where the Terminal can be configured.

2025-10-12

Like Visual Studio that it’s based upon, SSMS is very flexible when working with query windows and tabs.

Most people realize that you can undock and move tabs and windows around. Usually they discover that by accident and then realize that the Reset Window Layout option in the Window menu is helpful.

But one option I’ve found that many people don’t seem to realize is that you can undock just a single query window and move it outside the bounds of SSMS. You can even place it across on another screen if you have multiple screens.

2025-10-10

In a previous post, I showed how you might use split windows to allow you to work on different parts of a single query at the same time.

But what if you need to work on two queries and see parts of both of them?

That’s where document groups can help you. You can create both vertical and horizontal groups. For me, the most useful is typically side-by-side vertically, for when I’m comparing two sections of code.

2025-10-08