SQL Server Management Studio

Offline Installation of SSMS 22

Published 2026-02-05 by Kevin Feasel

Beginning with SQL Server Management Studio 21, Microsoft stopped providing the direct download package/binaries to install SSMS, instead it just downloads the SSMS installer. This installer then starts the installation of SSMS and downloads what is needed to install SSMS. Sometimes there may be a need to do an offline installation where you do not have access to the internet. In this article, we walk through the steps to do an offline install of SSMS.

I would have been curious about how large the installation folder is, considering that it grabs all possible options.

SSMS Updates and Code Completions

Published 2026-02-05 by Kevin Feasel

Brent Ozar wants an update:

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, SQL Server Management Studio was included as part of the SQL Server installer.

Back then, upgrading SSMS was not only a technical problem, but a political one too. Organizations would say things like, “Sorry, we haven’t certified that cool new SQL Server 1982 here yet, so you can’t have access to the installer.” Developers and DBAs were forced to run SSMS from whatever ancient legacy version of SQL Server that their company had certified.

Working in a controlled industry, I still get to hear that answer.

SSMS 22 Tabs vs Spaces

Published 2026-01-20 by Kevin Feasel

Koen Verbeeck comes in with a public service announcement:

I’m not trying to start up a debate whether you should use tabs or spaces when indenting code. Personally, I prefer spaces because when I copy the code to another editor the outlining of the code remains the same while with tabs it’s not always the case (looking at you, Word and Outlook). But I don’t want to hit the spacebar 4 times whenever I want to indent something, so I use the setting “insert spaces instead of tabs”:

Click through for a situation in which that might not happen correctly, as well as what you can do about it.

Working with Git in SSMS 22

Published 2026-01-13 by Kevin Feasel

Daniel Calbimonte answers a question:

In SSMS 22, there is Git integration to manage SQL code versions and repositories. How do you use this functionality? Can you walk through a step-by-step example?

I’ll admit that I’m not too wild about using Git in SSMS. I don’t have anything against the idea, but I’ve always used separate tools like Visual Studio and VS Code for project and source control management.

Comments closed

Split Screens in SSMS

Published 2026-01-05 by Kevin Feasel

Greg Low has a large monitor:

If you are working with really long script files in SSMS, you might need to work on more than one part of the script at the same time. Perhaps you need to work on a function, and also on the code that calls the function.

Click through for a short-but-sweet demonstration. I rarely used split screen in SSMS, but it is nice for comparisons or viewing two parts of a file at the same time.

Comments closed

Renaming Unsaved Tabs in SSMS 22

Published 2025-12-09 by Kevin Feasel

Greg Low shares a tip:

Anyone who has worked with SSMS for long, will have the experience of opening a number of query windows for short-term work, not wanting to save the scripts, and then being unable to find the one they want in the drop-down list of scripts:

If you’re using the newest version of SSMS, read on to see how you can avoid that pain.

Comments closed

Upgrading to SQL Server 2025

Published 2025-12-02 by Kevin Feasel

John Deardurff checks out a tool built into SSMS 22:

Starting with SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 22, the Hybrid & Migration Component delivers a streamlined experience for upgrade assessment and side-by-side migration. This replaces the Data Migration Assistant (DMA) that retired on July 16, 2025, consolidating assessment and migration into one tool. So what are the key capabilities:

Click through for those capabilities and a few tips on how to use it. I’m not sure how clean the upgrade process is to 2025 versus standalone installation. I’d imagine that, if you’re not using something like ML Services, it’s probably fine.

Comments closed

Tips for the Import Data Option in SQL Server

Published 2025-11-25 by Kevin Feasel

Andy Brownsword doesn’t trust wizards, with their pointy caps and long beards:

If you need to create a copy of a table in another database, the ‘Import Data’ option may seem convenient. If you’ve used this method to copy to your dev environment and found things break, this post is for you.

Click through for some solid advice on how to import that data. Another thing I would sometimes do is coerce all of the input columns to long strings and load it into a staging table. Then, I could use T-SQL to re-shape the data however I needed it rather than trying to get a finicky SSIS flow to translate this date and time combination (or whatever) appropriately.

Comments closed

Extracting SSMS 21 and 22 Saved Connection Data

Published 2025-11-24 by Kevin Feasel

Vlad Drumea wants to keep some connections:

In this post I demo a PowerShell script that can be used to extract and decrypt SSMS 21 and 22 saved connection information.

This script builds on the one for importing saved connections from SSMS 21 to SSMS 22.
Instead of importing, it looks for any SSMS 21 and 22 related config folders, extracts the relevant connection data, decrypts it and saves it in clear text.

Click through for a link to the script, as well as an explanation of what is happening.

Comments closed

Running SQL Server 2025 and SSMS in MacOS Tahoe

Published 2025-11-19 by Kevin Feasel

Randolph West shares some notes:

We Apple product folks have been through a journey with the Microsoft data platform and Arm64 support, haven’t we? When the M1-based Apple silicon laptops were released, we couldn’t run Windows x64 in a virtual machine at all. Then Parallels managed to get a build of Windows 11 Arm64 going, but that meant we couldn’t run SQL Server … reliably, anyway. Some versions could install sometimes, but it was unpredictable.

It looks like neither product runs perfectly, but they both work better than I expected.

Comments closed

Category: SQL Server Management Studio