SQL Server 2008 Quick Fact - New SSMS Shortcut
SQL Server 2008 is around the corner and I have been playing with it on and off. Microsoft has renamed the shortcut for starting Management Studio (old Query Analyzer + Enterprise Studio) in 2008. I found this almost a year ago with one of the Release Candidates, but was reminded of it when I re-installed SQL Server 2008 this weekend.
I am a big fan of shortcuts. Every developer sets their machines differently and working with database servers its always faster typing in the shortcut in start->run rather than digging for an icon.
SQL 2000
In SQL Server 2000, to launch Query Analyzer we ran the ISQLW shortcut. This essentially was the GUI equivelant of the ISQL console application.
SQL 2005
In SQL Server 2005, the Query Analyzer application and Enterprise Manager had their functionality merged into one application called "SQL Server Management Studio". One would figure that the shortcut for SQL Server 2005 would be SSMS or something. The shortcut is actually called SQLWB. For those that have played with some of the private old alphas of SQL Server 2005 (when it was still called Yukon) might remember that Management Studio was actually called SQL Server Workbench. That executable had remained SQLWB even though the product name got changed.
SQL 2008
In SQL Server 2008, FINALLY we have a standard shortcut. The shortcut now is SSMS; you guessed from the product name SQL Server Management Studio. This is not the most prolific feature inside SQL Server 2008, but I thought it is nice that finally the shortcut is standard with the long name of the product. There was someone in Microsoft who was probably asking himself the same thing "Why is the SQL Server Management Studio executable SQLWB?" nad finally decided to change it.
