Argh! Bring back Query Analyzer!

Steve Jones, a friend of mine over at sqlservercentral.com, asked me a question the other day that is brought up quite a bit. In earlier versions of SQL Server, we had at least two management tools: Enterprise Manager (EM) and Query Analyzer (QA). EM did the "right-click" stuff and QA did the query stuff. In SQL Server 2005 (and higher) we've combined these into one tool - SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).

We get asked a lot why we did that. And if we'll ever bring back the QA tool. We hear: "I just want to jump in, run a query, and get out." But did you know you can do that today?

Here are the steps:

1. Open SSMS
2. Click Tools in the menu, then select Options
3. In the At Startup button, click either Open new query window or Open Object Explorer and new query window (my favorite)
4. Close SSMS

Now whenever you open you're back at the Query Window, just like QA.

Oh, and I know it's slower. We're working on that ! :)