Jens Vestergaard provides an update:
Twelve years ago 🤯 I wrote a quick post about never losing your server list in SSMS again. The short version was: copy one file, stay sane. The file was called
SqlStudio.bin, and the trick still works today if you are on an old enough version.But if you are running SSMS 19, 20, 21 or 22 on Windows 11, the file is gone. The settings have moved, and the format has changed. The principle is the same, but the file you need to grab is different.
Here is the updated version for 2026.
Click through to see what changed starting in SSMS 19, as well as how to manage that file.