Category: Installation & Configuration
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How to Enable Dark Mode in SSMS
🛠️Part of the SSMS Complete Guide, installing, configuring and fixing SQL Server Management Studio. Dark mode in SQL Server Management Studio is finally a supported setting rather than a registry hack. It arrived with SSMS 21 and carries through SSMS 22, where theming has been extended release by release. If you are on SSMS 18…
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SSMS Query Shortcuts: Run sp_whoisactive on a Hotkey
🛠️Part of the SSMS Complete Guide, installing, configuring and fixing SQL Server Management Studio. Press Ctrl+1 in a query window and SSMS runs sp_who. Press Ctrl+2 and you get sp_lock. Most people know those two exist and stop there, which means missing the actual feature: the mechanism behind them is configurable, and mapping your own…
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DBA Scripts: Get Service Broker Health and Database Mail Queue
🔧Part of the DBA-Tools Project, copy/paste SQL Server scripts and health checks.In: Server & Configuration Two Messaging Systems That Run Quietly Until They Don’t Service Broker and Database Mail are both messaging infrastructure, and both are easy to forget are even active, since SQL Server uses Service Broker internally for things like Availability Group health…
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DBA Scripts: Get Collation Conflicts and Cross-Database Dependencies
🔧Part of the DBA-Tools Project, copy/paste SQL Server scripts and health checks.In: Server & Configuration Two Things That Break Silently at Migration or Decommission Time Two checks that rarely matter until the exact moment they do: does this database’s collation match the server’s (and every other database it might join against), and does anything in…
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DBA Scripts: Get CDC and Change Tracking
🔧Part of the DBA-Tools Project, copy/paste SQL Server scripts and health checks.In: Server & Configuration Two Features, Same Risk: They Both Grow the Transaction Log Change Data Capture and Change Tracking answer a similar question, “what changed and when,” for two different audiences, ETL/replication consumers for CDC, application-level conflict detection for Change Tracking. They’re unrelated…
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SSMS Results Grid: Export to Excel, JSON and Markdown
🛠️Part of the SSMS Complete Guide, installing, configuring and fixing SQL Server Management Studio. For twenty years the way query results left SSMS was copy, paste into a spreadsheet, fix the columns the paste mangled. SSMS 22 quietly ended that: the results grid now saves straight to Excel, JSON, Markdown and XML, alongside the CSV…
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DBA Scripts: Get Database Snapshot Inventory
🔧Part of the DBA-Tools Project, copy/paste SQL Server scripts and health checks.In: Storage & Capacity The Snapshot Everyone Forgot They Created A database snapshot is created for one specific reason, a pre-deployment rollback point, a reporting-consistency workaround, a test before a risky change, and then it just sits there. Snapshots don’t show up in a…
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SQL Server Builds: Complete Version List and Support Lifecycle
🔖 Living reference Every build number, KB and support date on this page comes from Microsoft’s official build and lifecycle pages, and the page is regenerated after each patch release. ✓ Data checked: 15 August 2026 Filed under Server & Configuration This is the reference I keep open for every SQL Server environment I touch.…
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How to Get the SQL Server IP Address
When troubleshooting connectivity, firewall rules, or unexpected routing, you often need one simple answer: which IP address and port did my session actually connect to? SQL Server can listen on multiple IPs (and listeners can resolve to multiple addresses), so the hostname in your connection string does not always tell you what you really hit.…
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Open SSMS as a Different Domain User
🛠️Part of the SSMS Complete Guide, installing, configuring and fixing SQL Server Management Studio. When working in corporate SQL Server environments, you will often need to connect using a different Active Directory domain account. Common reasons include: SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) does not allow switching users inside the connection dialog. To connect as another…
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