Last week while building out my new workstation, I installed VS.Net 2005 Beta w/ Team Services. In doing so, I left the option to install SQL Server 2005 Express checked. I then installed SQL 2005 Beta 2. During that installation I received an error talking about tools already existing and how it needed to 'maintain' them. At the time I disregarded this message and assumed I was trying to install a component that already existed. From there I completed the install and moved on (aka played UT2004).

Tonight though, I needed to make some data changes to my IvelDesigns[^] site. When I went looking for an Enterprise Manager type snap-in, I came up empty handed. So I popped in the install CD and tried to install the tools only. That's when the error I saw during the initial install appeared. This time I read it closer and realized that I needed to uninstall the tools that Express had installed via the Add/Remove applications tool. After removing the Express tools, the install completed as expected (although it was pretty time consuming) and I was up and running.

First thing I did was add a connection to another SQL 2000 server. No problems at all. Since I needed up update some data by hand, I started to look for a “Return all Records” option like you would see in Enterprise Manager. No luck. Instead I used the “Insert To” auto generated code and added my record that way. I also needed to make a stored proc change. This was also very simple.

Overall, I like the new SQL 2005 Management Studio. Looks a lot like Visual Studio as expected, and was easy to use. It sure would be nice if Microsoft could merge 100% of the functionality of SQL Studio to Visual Studio. I am just now starting to use VS.Net 2k5, so this may be the case already. I am assuming it's not at this point.

Now I just need to learn all of the needed key board shortcuts that I used in Query Analyzer (death to all mice!).