Updated June, 2016
Ever jump on a machine to connect to a SQL Server and find out… whoops! No tools. For some reason, the client machine doesn’t have SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) installed. Now I’m not talking about not having the SSMS installed on the server, but on the local workstation that you need to connect to the server with.
No tools has happened to me many times and, in fact, happened to me this past week. In the past, this would mean running around trying to get find the client’s SQL Server installation media. Maybe downloading a 4+ GB ISO of the entire SQL Server installation from TechNet. Or, hopefully, making sure the client had USB ports open on their machines and that I had my installation media backup drive with me. A lot of things that were more work than one would like.
As SQL Server 2016 was developed, Microsoft made an exciting change in which SQL Server Management Studio would now be a available on the web without the need to download everything else. While this download is specific to SQL Server 2016, it does work with previous versions of SQL Server. I recommend this version for any modern version of SQL Server.
Download SQL Server Management Studio from Microsoft here.
For other versions of SQL Server, you can get downloads from these locations:
- SQL Server 2012 – Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Service Pack 3 (SP3) Express
- SQL Server 2014 – Microsoft® SQL Server® 2014 Express
For either of these, select either SQLManagementStudio_x64_ENU.exe or SQLManagementStudio_x86_ENU.exe from the download, depending on the need for you environment.
Hello, guys. Complete list of direct downloads (great thanks to Scott Hanselman): https://github.com/ktaranov/sqlserver-kit#sql-server-express-direct-download-links
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Awesome post!
Make sure you use INTERNET EXPLORER to download. I spent an hour trying to install via CHROME on WINDOWS 8 and couldn’t get it to work.
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Many thanks…
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Thank you! Ran into this problem a lot but decided to just work on the server since I could remote into it. I was becoming a pain in the butt as I needed to do more stuff in studio. Thanks a million for this!
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Does this include sqlcmd?
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That’s great!!! Thanks a lot!
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This is awesome. Thank you for the info!
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Is there a way to get the tools but not with the Express limitations? I need to connect to our AS machines too.
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Good question, I’ll see what I can find out.
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Awesome, thanks!
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Finally, I thought that Microsoft tries to keep it in secret
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This is a great example of Microsoft listening to the community to make things better.
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Yup this is probably the best thing since sliced cheese from microsoft.
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