How to add SSMS to the PATH variable with Powershell

Question: I've installed the latest SQL Server Management Studio onto a server. I can find the ssms.exe through the directory - but I cannot start the SQL Server Management Studio through the cmdline - i.e type "ssms" in the command line. How can I fix this problem? Answer: I had a similar problem recently when installing SSMS 18.4. I downloaded the binary - installed without any errors - but then couldn't execute "ssms" from the command line. To solve this issue I added the directory with ssms.exe into the PATH variable and applied this as a machine wide change ,... Read more →

How to execute a SQL batch multiple times with GO

Question: I'd like to execute a batch sql statement through SQL Server management studio multiple times and avoid using a loop statement or other similar constructs . I'm doing some testing requiring multiple returns of recordsets and would like a simple approach - for ad hoc queries Answer: Looking at the SQL Server documentation for the sql server utility GO - indicates the syntax is GO [count]. This means the queries triggered as part of the batch executed will execute the amount of times listed after GO. By default it's 1 , but if you specify a positive integer -... Read more →

Does SQL Server install Visual Studio components

Question: I was looking through Programs installed on a server with SQL Server installed and noticed Visual Studio components installed. As part of a SQL Server installation , which parts of the SQL Server install install the Visual Studio components? Answer: Since the 2016 version , SSMS is now based on the Visual Studio 2015 Shell. You could say SSMS is a Visual Studio Extension. The main reasoning , is the removal of dependency on installing .Net Framework 3.5 and some apparent performance improvements. Note:SSMS is now a standalone installation Useful reading on SSMS How to start SSMS as Administrator... Read more →

How to start SSMS as Administrator

Sometimes you find yourself in a situation where you are logged onto a server via RDP - and want to start SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) as another local login. I'm not talking about the actual SQL Server login process - but actually starting SSMS as another login. Why would you want to do this? Let's say you've logged onto a server with a particular login - but that login may not have permissions to start SSMS. Or you may have BUILTIN\Administrators enabled on the SQL Server , therefore you may need to initiate SSMS in the context of a... Read more →

Attempted to read or write protected memory.This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt

Question: When attempting to open a table via SSMS 2012 – through the Edit top 200 rows , I get the Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation , Attempted to read or write protected memory.This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt error message How can I fix? Answer: There are a number of potential fixes to this problem 1)Is the SSMs the correct version? In other words is the SSMS a lower version from the target SQL Server? For example – are you attempting to connect to SQL Server 2016 from a SSMS... Read more →