Wayne Sheffield wraps up his 31 SSMS tricks in 31 days series. First, he shows off the presentation settings in SSMS. Presenter mode isn’t nearly as full-featured as I’d like to see it be, but it’s an improvement over the old version, at least.
He then shows standard reports built into SSMS.
The last post in the series is all about the Activity Monitor:
The Activity Monitor can be useful for seeing a mile-high view of a SQL Server instance. However, leaving it running can be as big a drag on the instance as is the use of SQL Profiler. The Resource Waits section of Activity Monitor, which would have been one of the strongest features, has been dumbed down by the filtering of wait types, and that many others are grouped together into categories. Sure, using the Activity Monitor convenient – but spend the time to develop your own scripts or XE sessions to get this information in a more efficient, with less impact. Overall, refrain from using it… and especially don’t set up SSMS to open it automatically on startup.
Agreed. For all of Wayne’s tips and tricks, check out his index page.