Hide databases from users who shouldn't be able to see them This is a long-standing request from Erland Sommarskog which I've highlighted in previous digests. But the underlying problem keeps coming up in multiple venues, so I thought it would be good to call attention to the item one more time. Some will argue that the contained database feature ...

This week I decided to focus on some of the long-outstanding issues with IntelliSense in Management Studio. While I know many of you are using 3rd party tools like RedGate's SQL Prompt, not everybody has that luxury - in my case, I can't justify a license for every single server I touch, since I can't connect to every environment using SSMS ...

This week I have collected five important bugs involving Management Studio, and I hope you'll visit them, provide input and vote on the ones you think are worthwhile. #651176 : SSMS tries to access disconnected network drives when in the Save File As wizardPaul Randal (blog | twitter) filed this issue when he experienced significant delays trying ...

Background Last year, I came to a very tough decision that I would cease publicizing Connect items in an attempt to drive up votes and get important issues fixed. This was almost entirely due to a couple of MVPs criticizing me for raising awareness of certain Connect items instead of letting them be found ''naturally.'' I wasn't sure what world ...

I see people complain that IntelliSense (new in SQL Server 2008's Management Studio) is not working.  Most of the time, it is for one of two reasons:The object is not in the local IntelliSense cache, since it was created recently.  You can fix this easily by going to Edit > IntelliSense > Refresh Local Cache, or ...

When developing stored procedures, there seems to be a lot of emphasis on ''get it done fast.'' Which means type all lower case, pay little attention to formatting, and sometimes throw best practices out the window. Personally, I would rather front-load my development time; I think that the costs I pay in initial development far outweigh what ...

Hidden in the Edit > IntelliSense menu is QuickInfo, keyboard shortcut Ctrl-K, Ctrl-I. It pops up information (e.g. column name, data type, nullability) about the current object (table, view, DMV, column) under the cursor. Very Cool. Thank You to Buck and his team of SSMS superstars.

Currently, the plans for IntelliSense are to support SQL Server 2008 *ONLY*... since it works against SQL Server 2005 in the February CTP, I was very surprised to learn that it is being dropped by RTM (and possibly by RC0).  This is mainly because of the time frame of the release and the difficulty of catering to multiple dialects (sometimes ...