SQL Server Express WebLog : Headlines

SQL Server 2008 Express is now live!

sqlexpress — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:48:58 GMT

I promised an update on SQL Express availability in my last post about the release of SQL Server 2008 so here it is. SQL Server 2008 Express is now available along with the release of the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, which is a prerequisite and Visual Studio Express SP1. As I mentioned, there are two more editions of SQL Express on the way. There are a number of prerequisites for SQL Server 2008 that you will have to install on your own before installing SQL Express. Here is the list and basic instructions:

Install the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 located here.
Install Windows Installer 4.5 located here.
Install SQL Express 2008 from here.

Windows Installer 4.5 requires a reboot on almost every system out there and SQL Express will fail if there are any pending reboots on the system so I suggested doing the following:

Install all the prerequisites in a row and then reboot at the end of installing the prerequisites.
1. If you magically already have the prerequisites (which should be impossible at the time of this writing since .NET just came out) you should just reboot before installing SQL Express to save yourself the frustration if you have pending reboots on the system.)
After rebooting, install SQL Express from the Express web site. (While you're there, feel free to register. You'll get an e-mail pointing you to various registration benefits.)

A note about Visual Studio Express SP1

Visual Studio 2008 Express SP1 includes the installation of SQL Express 2008; if you have an earlier version of SQL Express on your computer you will be offered the option to upgrade to SQL Express 2008. There are a couple cases where this offered upgrade will fail that you should be aware of:

If you have the 64bit version of a prerelease version of SQL Express 2008 on your computer. Visual Studio only installs the 32bit version, even on 64bit machines. See below for more info on cross-architecture upgrades.
If you have a different edition installed to the instance name SQLEXPRESS, for example SQL Express with Advanced Services. It isn't uncommon for people to have upgraded their copies of SQL Express to SQL Express w/ Advanced Services while retaining the instance name. There is no support for down-grading the edition so you'll need to do this manually. You can determine the current edition you have installed either by launching the maintenance dialog from Add/Remove Programs and examining the Engine edition or by simply running "SELECT @@version" from SQLCmd or a query window.

Optional component

SQL Server PowerShell is an option component in SQL Express 2008. Optional in this case means that we do not make Windows PowerShell 1.0 a prerequisite for SQL Express 2008, but it is required to use the new SQL PowerShell scripting. If you're interested in playing with SQL Server PowerShell, you should install Windows PowerShell 1.0 before you install SQL Express for it to work correctly. You can find the correct PowerShell installer from this page. If you have already installed SQL Express and still want to play with PowerShell, you'll need to repair you installation of SQL Express after you've installed PowerShell. In order to repair SQL Express you'll need to download it again (unless you happened to save your installer files) and select Repair when you see the Installation Center.

Pre-release software

If you have the February CTP (this is the one that was installed by Visual Studio Express 2008 SP1 Beta) or the Release Candidate of SQL Express, you should be able to do an in place upgrade to the final release, no uninstall required. When the Installation Center opens up, choose the option to upgrade from either SQL 2000 or SQL 2005. I know you're upgrading from a 2008 version and it doesn't say that, but trust me, that is the correct path to follow. You will still need to apply the prerequisites before performing this upgrade.

If you have the November CTP of SQL Express, you will need to remove that before upgrading to the final release.

Upgrade & Architecture

With SQL Server 2008 we are releasing a 64bit version of SQL Express for the first time. SQL Express doesn't support cross-architecture, in-place upgrade, meaning you can't upgrade a 32bit copy of SQL Express to the 64bit copy. The only way to do this upgrade is side by side. You will need to either remove the old 32-bit version if you want to preserve your instance name, or you can install the 64bit version to a new instance name. We do still support 32bit to 32bit upgrade and we do still have a WoW enabled copy of SQL Express available from the download center.

Have fun!

- Mike

What's up with SQL Server 2008 Express editions

sqlexpress — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 02:49:00 GMT

Microsoft has announced the release of SQL Server 2008 and that means it time for another post about SQL Server Express.

The press release indicated that SQL Express is already available, but those of you who have followed the link have found that it is not actually there. Nothing to worry about, has a dependency on the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and we need to coordinate the release to the web for both of these which will take a few more days. I'll blog about it when we release it and you can watch the Express web site for updates; when we release it, it will be available from that site.

There will be three editions of SQL Express, each one adding to the functionality of the previous one; you simply pick the edition that includes the set of functionality you need and install it. The information I posted about SQL Express RC0 is still valid, but I'm reproducing the feature comparison table here to include the third edition:

Feature	SQL Server 2008 Express	SQL Server 2008 Express with Tools	SQL Server 2008 Express with Advanced Services
Management
PowerShell Integration	Y (Separate installation)*	Y	Y
Policy Based Management	Y (manual only)**	Y (manual only)*	Y (manual only)**
Management Studio Basic	N	Y	Y
SQL Engine
Integrated Full Text Search	N	N	Y
Merge & Upsert	Y	Y	Y
New Data type support
Filestream support	Y	Y	Y
New Date & Time data types	Y	Y	Y
Geodetic data types	Y	Y	Y
Advanced Spatial Libraries	Y	Y	Y
Support for Spatial Standards	Y	Y	Y
New Tools
Import/Export Wizard	Y	Y	Y
Replication
Change Tracking	Y	Y	Y
Synchronization Services	Y (Separate installation)***	Y (Separate installation)***	Y
Reporting Services
Increase RS Memory Limit	N	N	Y
RS Word/Rich Text Export	N	N	Y
IIS Agnostic Report Deployment	N	N	Y
Enhanced Gauges & Charting	N	N	Y
Business Intelligence Developer's Studio	N	N	Y

* The SqlPS command line tool can be enabled in SQL Express by installing Windows PowerShell 1.0 before installing SQL Express.

** Policies can be created in SQL Express and run manually. There is no support for automated policy based management.

*** Synchronization Services support in SQL Express requires that you install the component separately from the SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack.

As you can see, SQL Express with Tools includes the core database engine and the basic version of Management Studio; this is the ideal edition for people who want the right tools for developing relational database applications. The advanced features such as Integrated Full Text Search, Reporting Services and BIDS are available in SQL Express Advanced. SQL Express with Tools will be delivered in the same architectures and with the same prerequisites as SQL Express Advanced, which are as follows:

SQL Express with Tools architecture

32-bit only installation package (x86 platforms only)

64-bit native installation packages (x64 platforms only)

SQL Express with Tools Prerequisites

.NET Framework 3.5 SP1

Windows Installer 4.5

Windows PowerShell 1.0

As with previous releases (SQL Server 2005) we will be releasing SQL Express 2008 in stages. SQL Express core will be released first, along with Visual Studio 2008 SP1, and the other two editions will follow about a month later. As I said, watch the Express web site and this blog for information about the release of these two additional editions.

- Mike

SQL Server 2008 Express RC0

sqlexpress — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:27:00 GMT

It's time for another release post, this time for RC0 of SQL Server 2008 Express and SQL Server 2008 Express with Advanced Services. Here is the information that everyone is waiting to hear about the SQL Express product line. (Note: If you're the impatient type you can skip to the end of this post to find the instructions for installing SQL Express.)

Physical Limitations

SQL Express 2008 has the same physical limitations that existed in SQL Express 2005:

1 CPU
1 GB Memory
4 GB of user data per database

Since people always ask - you can run SQL Express on machines that exceed these limits, SQL Express just ignores any addition CPUs or memory. SQL Express will take advantage of multiple cores on the single CPU by starting a scheduler for each core.

Feature Support

The same features available in SQL Express 2005 are still available in SQL Express 2008, if you need a refresher on those you can find them in the Feature Comparison chart in Books Online. This post only calls out the features in SQL Express that are new in 2008.

Feature	SQL Server 2008 Express	SQL Server 2008 Express with Advanced Services
Management
Management Studio Basic	N	Y
PowerShell Integration	Y (Separate installation)*	Y
Policy Based Management	Y (manual only)**	Y (manual only)**
SQL Engine
Merge & Upsert	Y	Y
New Data type support
Filestream support	Y	Y
New Date & Time data types	Y	Y
Geodetic data types	Y	Y
Advanced Spatial Libraries	Y	Y
Support for Spatial Standards	Y	Y
New Tools
Import/Export Wizard	Y	Y
Replication
Change Tracking	Y	Y
Synchronization Services	Y (Separate installation)***	Y
Reporting Services
Increase RS Memory Limit	N	Y
RS Word/Rich Text Export	N	Y
IIS Agnostic Report Deployment	N	Y
Enhanced Gauges & Charting	N	Y

* The SqlPS command line tool can be enabled in SQL Express by installing Windows PowerShell 1.0 before installing SQL Express.

** Policies can be created in SQL Express and run manually. There is no support for automated policy based management.

*** Synchronization Services support in SQL Express requires that you install the component separately. It is available from the SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack on the Microsoft Download Center.

Architecture Support

SQL Express and SQL Express Advanced will be release in both 32-bit and 64-bit (x64 0nly). As in the past, SQL Express will available for download from the Microsoft Download Center and there will be multiple packages depending on your specific needs. The following types of packages will be released at RTM. (Not all of these will be available at RC0)

SQL Express

32-bit only installation package (x86 platforms only)

32-bit WoW installation package (x86 and x64 platforms)

64-bit native installation packages (x64 platforms only)

SQL Express Advanced

32-bit only installation package (x86 platforms only)

64-bit native installation packages (x64 platforms only)

Installing SQL Express products

SQL Server 2008 introduces some new prerequisites to installation and as in the past, these prerequisites are not included in the SQL Express packages. You must install these prerequisites manually before installing either SQL Express product or the installation will fail.

SQL Express prerequisites

.NET Framework 2.0 SP2

Windows Installer 4.5

SQL Express Advanced prerequisites

.NET Framework 3.5 SP1

Windows Installer 4.5

Windows PowerShell 1.0

Note 1: While the .NET Framework 2.0 SP2 is the technical prerequisite for the core SQL Express package, I've only found this available as part of the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (Beta at the time of RC0), which includes all services packs of the 2.0 and 3.0 release of the framework as well.

Note 2: You will need to reboot your computer after installing Windows Installer 4.5 on most platforms. SQL Server 2008 will fail to install if the reboot after Windows Installer 4.5 has not been completed.

Once all the pre-requisites have been installed you can install SQL Express or SQL Express Advanced by downloading the desired package and double clicking it to start the installation.

Download the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Beta from here.

Download Windows Installer 4.5 from here. (Pick the appropriate package for your environment.)

Download Windows PowerShell 1.0 from here. (Pick the appropriate package for your environment.)

Download SQL Server 2008 Express from here. (SQL Express links are at the bottom of the Instructions section.)

Getting Help

You can post Express specific question to the SQL Server Katmai Express forum.

You can post SQL Server 2008 general questions on the SQL Server Katmai forums.

You can file bugs and feature requests on SQL Server Connect site.

Have fun!

-Mike

SQL Server Express and Hosting

sqlexpress — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 04:49:00 GMT

Several questions have come up lately regarding whether SQL Server Express is an appropriate product to be used in a hosting environment. Here are the answers:

· User Instances (also known as RANU) available with SQL Server Express Edition, are NOT RECOMMENDED for hosting environments.

· Shared hosting: SQL Server Express Edition is NOT RECOMMENDED for shared (multi-tenant) hosting as the scale limits and memory handling do not allow it to meet the requirements of such an environment. SQL Server Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition are the best choice for shared hosting.

· Dedicated hosting: All versions of SQL Server including Express Edition are RECOMMENDED for dedicated (single-tenant) hosting environments. SQL Server Express Edition is a great way to provide a free copy of SQL Server with low cost Windows Server offerings. Where customers require more advanced features or higher scale, Workgroup Edition, Standard Edition, and Enterprise Edition are all options.

· Applications built on SQL Server Express Edition can be hosted in other editions of SQL Server. There is a tool called the Database Publishing Wizard (it comes bundled with Visual Studio 2008) to help the export/import process. If the Connection String contains a reference to User Instances, it needs to be updated (many sample applications and development tools include User Instances by default). There are several excellent post from Scott Guthrie that describe how to use the Database Publishing Wizard and how to post your ASP.NET application to a web host:

Recipe: Deploying a SQL Database to a Remote Hosting Environment

Update of SQL Server Database Publishing Toolkit for Web Hosting

Tip/Trick: How to upload a .SQL file to a Hoster and Execute it to Deploy a SQL Database

For hosters looking for more guidance on running SQL Server 2005 in a hosted environment, see the best practices article SQL Server 2005 Deployment Guidance for Web Hosting Environments.

Two posts in one day, I'm on a roll.

- Mike Wachal

- SQL Express team

Opinion Poll: Creating Reports in SQL Express 2008

sqlexpress — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 03:09:00 GMT

The Reporting Services team is developing a new report designer tool that we're considering including in SQL Server Express 2008 with Advanced Services. This new report designer has a different user experience that is more geared toward information workers than developers. You can take a look at a preview of the new designer by downloading the SQL Server Developer 2008 November CTP. Once installed, you can find it at Start | All Programs | Microsoft SQL Server 2008 | Reporting Services | Report Designer Preview.

So why am I telling you this?

I'm interested in your opinions of this tool and the idea of having the new Report Designer as part of SQL Express instead of BIDs. (Don't worry: BIDs will still be available in other SQL Server 2008 editions, just not in Express.) I think the look and feel of the new Report Designer will be easier to use for most SQL Express users while still offering all the major report design functionality that folks need.

The only features that won't be exposed in the new designer are related to more advanced development tasks, such as creating managed assemblies to use in your reports.

Reply requested

Register your opinion about this change by either posting a comment in this blog or by using the EMAIL link at the top of the blog to send mail to the team. We're interested in what you think.

Provide feedback

If you have feedback on the new Report Designer (features or bugs) you can post those through MS Connect, start at https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer. You will have to register on the site to gain access, but once you do you will find information about our Community Technology Previews (CTPs) and a place to post your feedback.

Mike

SQL Express team

SQL Express SP2 available on Microsoft Update

sqlexpress — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 20:00:00 GMT

Just a quick not to let you know that the SP2 update for SQL Express, SQL Express with Advanced Services and SQL Express Toolkit are being published to Microsoft Update today. These are automatic updates and will apply to computers based on your Microsoft Update settings for automatic updates. (i.e. Notify, Download and Notify or Download and Install)

The updates will also be part of WSUS so that IT Administrators have control over deployment of these updates throughout an Enterprise.

When applied through Microsoft Update or WSUS, the Express SP2 updates will discover the list of installed features on an instance and update those features appropriately. Additionally, Microsoft Update will detect and update all instances of SQL Express at the same time. This is different from the UI version of the Express SP2 update which must be run seperately for each instance of SQL Express installed on your computer.

-Mike

SQL Server 2005 SP2 has been released

sqlexpress — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 19:01:00 GMT

It's been a long road filled with many shouts of "Are we there yet?", so I'm happy to say that yes, we're there now. SP2 has finally be released. You can find the SQL Express SP2 bits on the SQL Express download page along with several other related downloads. As of this writing, we were having some problems with our publication system, so you may see that the page still says SP1, but the Download links themselves are updated and will actually download SP2. We'll get the page updated as soon as possible so it actually says what you're downloading.

The most significant thing in SP2 for Express is that we have added the ability to provision the installing user as a SysAdmin on SQL Express, which is a requirement when you are running on Windows Vista with UAC turned on. You can read more about this in my previous blog post on the topic.

I mentioned quite awhile ago that we would be putting SP2 on Microsoft Update. Organizing this takes a few extra weeks, but you can expect that the SQL Express SP2 update will be offered via Microsoft Update by the end of March if not sooner. When updating from Microsoft Update, all instances of SQL Express will be updated together rather than having to do them one at a time as you have to do with the UI based version.

Finally, I'm working on creating a new manifest for the VS Generic Bootstrapper that will allow developers to embed SQL Express SP2 with their applications rather than the RTM version that ships with VS 2005. I know many people have been waiting on this update and I hope to have it out by mid-March. I'll post more information in the blog when it's available.

- Mike

SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition - Final Release available!

sqlexpress — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 23:35:00 GMT

If you've been reading this blog or the SQL Express Forum you've undoubtably seen me write about SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition (SQL CE) as an alternative database for use when writing client applications that require local data storage. SQL CE is the evolution of SQL Mobile, with support added for Windows desktop operating systems. The SQL CE team has been working hard over the past months to do all the right things to make this a great product for desktop database development and they've just released! I'll let you explore to find the details; if you're developing applications that require local storage, be sure to check out SQL CE.

SQL CE Product Page
SQL CE TechNet Page
SQL CE Developer Center

- Mike

Inaccuracies in recent CNNMoney.com article about SQL Express and Windows Vista

sqlexpress — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 21:31:00 GMT

Owen Thomas wrote an article for the Business 2.0 secton of CNNMoney.com on December 15,2006 that made some inaccurate claims about SQL Express compatibility with the upcomming Windows Vista operating system. Mr. Thomas wrote that you "can't run the current version of SQL Server" on Windows Vista. This is not true, SQL Express SP1 is fully supported on Windows Vista.

We have documented this level of support at a number of locations on the Microsoft web site, including the System Requirements page and in our 'SQL on Vista' FAQ page. The fourth Q/A pair on the page states:

Q.	What release of SQL Server 2005 will run on Windows Vista?
A.	SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with Service Pack 1 will run on Windows Vista but has known issues with User Access Control. For all other editions of SQL Server 2005, Service Pack 2 will be required for Windows Vista and Windows Server "Longhorn" support when those products are released.

It is true that there is a known issue related to how Vista User Account Control impacts the ability to connect to a default installation of SQL Express SP1, but I've documented the way to work around that problem in here. (For most deployed application this issue will not be a problem as they already create explicit Logins to access the database rather than rely on the default Logins. See the post for more information.) I've also discussed how the installation process in SQL Express SP2 has been modified to help manage UAC in this post.

Just to reiterate...

SQL Express SP1 will run on Windows Vista.

Microsoft supports customers running SQL Express SP1 on Windows Vista.

If you have questions about running SQL Express on Windows Vista you should feel free to post a question in the SQL Express forum or to contact me through the e-mail link in this blog.

Mike Wachal
SQL Express team

Database Publishing Wizard - CTP2

sqlexpress — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 05:10:00 GMT

Our web hosting team within SQL Server has reached another milestone with the second CTP of the Database Publishing Wizard. Congratulations to the team! Here is the announcements in their own words explaining some of the updates and changes.

- Mike

Today, we’re excited to announce the release of the 2nd CTP of the SQL Server Hosting Toolkit!

This CTP contains both a dramatically enhanced Database Publishing Wizard as well as the new Database Publishing Services.

Major enhancements to the Database Publishing Wizard include support for almost all database-level objects and data types, a wizard-based GUI, and integration with the Database Publishing Services.

The Database Publishing Services enable hosters to provide a seamless deployment story for their customers who’ve downloaded the Database Publishing Wizard. The services are designed to be easy to deploy and require minimal resources. With this CTP, hosters can do test deployments in preparation for our formal release next month.

SQL Express SP2 - November CTP now available

sqlexpress — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 02:50:10 GMT

The November CTP of SQL Express SP2 is available at a download center near you. As I've written before, SQL Express SP1 has a few known issues when running on Windows Vista, SP2 is where we've addressed these issues and is what we recommend using for Vista compatibility in your applications. The CTP is available from the Microsoft Download Center:

SQL Express SP2 CTP

SQL Express with Advanced Services SP2 CTP

SQL Express Toolkit SP2 CTP

These CTPs are not for production distribution, but you should feel free to start testing your applications. We will be posting SQL Express SP2 to Microsoft Update (read my post about that here), and the CTP is your chance to validate this release with your applications and ensure they work before you customers apply it in the wild.

Feel free to file any issues you find in the SQL Server Feedback Center.

- Mike

Database Publishing Wizard CTP

sqlexpress — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 00:22:16 GMT

Getting a database from your development computer onto your web hosters computer can be a challenge. We've been working to make this process easier by developing a tool to completely script out your database so that you can run the script on your hosters computer. I encourage you to download and test the first CTP of the Database Publishing Wizard.

CTP stands for Community Technology Preview, this type of program allows you to try out and give use feedback on new software while it is still under development. A CTP isn't the final version, so it might be a bit rough around the edges, but the trade-off is that you get to help set the direction of the product with your feedback. Make sure you read over the future plans for DPW and use the tools on CodePlex to provide feedback to the development team.

Mike

Community Voting Now Open in Made In Express Contest

sqlexpress — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 08:10:00 GMT

The Made In Express Contest finalists have built and submitted their projects. It's time for our esteemed judges, and YOU, to tell which ones you like the best. What’s your favorite? Choose from an X-10 smart house system, a poker bot simulator, an all terrain self-maneuverable robot, and many more. Visit www.MadeInExpressContest.com to make your vote.

Bonus for SQL Server Express users: Many of these projects use SQL Server Express Edition and the source code is available for you to download and try yourself!

Best regards,

Yes it's true: MSDE will not be supported on Windows Vista

sqlexpress — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 23:42:00 GMT

There have been a few blog postings (most notably Eric Nelson's post on July 12) about the fact that MSDE 1.0 and 2000 will not be supported on Windows Vista and Longhorn. It's high time I made it official:

MSDE 1.0 and 2000 will not be supported on Windows Vista

If Windows Vista compatibility is important for your application, you will need to update them to use SQL Express rather than MSDE. To be exact, the version of SQL Express that will be fully supported on Windows Vista will be Service Pack 2. Before you even hit the comment button, I know that SP2 has not released yet. You can start your testing using SQL Express SP1 and move the SP2 when the CTP becomes available. SQL Express SP1 works pretty well on Vista, the major piece that is still coming is related to the User Access Control features of Vista. (Note: As you start testing SQL Express on Vista, you should file any issues you find in the SQL Server Feedback Center.) There are a number of resources to help you with the migration:

SQL Express Download (website)

Benefits of Upgrading MSDE to SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (website)

SQL Server 2005 Express Customer Evidence (website)

SQL Server 2005 Express Datasheet (datasheet)

SQL Express Redistribution Rights Registration (website)

SQL Server Express Forum (website)

MSDE Mainstream and Extended Support Retirement Dates (website)

Upgrading from MSDE to SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (white paper)

Managing SQL Server Express with Management Studio Express (white paper)

Reporting Services in SQL Server 2005 Express (white paper)

Why isn't MSDE supported on Vista?

There were a number of reasons we made this decision, I'll hit the high points:

· SQL Express can be serviced through Microsoft Update, MSDE can't - Check out my earlier post about keeping SQL Express up to date with Microsoft Update. We made a number of changes in SQL Express to improve our servicing story in order to reduce the risk of having SQL Express installed (read: Slammer). The update mechanisms for MSDE 2000 are simply not supported in Windows Vista and we can't support a product on Vista that can't be properly serviced.

· MSDE 2000 s almost at the end of it's support life cycle - MSDE 2000 will exit mainstream support on 4/8/2008 and no new deployment agreements will be allowed after June 30, 2007.

There are also some major benefits to SQL Express over MSDE, consider: no workload governor, increased database size (4 GB), a GUI management tool (Management Studio Express) and new advanced functionality such as Full-text Search and Reporting Services.

Given these facts, we decided the best benefit to Microsoft customers was for use to focus our efforts on ensuring that SQL Express 2005 is a first class database on Windows Vista.

What does not supported mean?

Not supported means not supported on Vista. Microsoft will not release fixes related to problems on Vista. Our support organization will not provide support for running MSDE on Vista. We make no claims of any kind about MSDE functionality on Vista. I know what you're thinking, you want to ask if it will install…

Windows does not do anything to block MSDE from installing on Vista, but you will get a warning indicating that MSDE is not supported. I've heard some anecdotal reports that MSDE does not survive the upgrade from Windows XP to Vista. This is all really a moot point since Microsoft will not support MSDE on Vista. You will best server your own customers by migrating your applications to SQL Express rather than trying to run an unsupported configuration.

Will MSDE still be supported on existing operating systems?

Yes, MSDE will be supported through the end of it's life cycle on the operating systems it is currently designed to run on.

What about other Microsoft programs that use MSDE?

I don't have an exhaustive list of these programs, but all the applications I'm aware of that depend on MSDE will either be releasing patches or new versions that will support Vista by incorporating SQL Express. You should be able to find more information about specific applications by looking at their specific product sites on the Microsoft web site.

What about Access 2003?

Access 2003 already supports using SQL Express, no patching required. There are a couple known issues when paring these two products:

· The SQL designers in Access 2003 do not work against SQL 2005. This is true for Access, Visual Studio 2003 and any other product that uses the VS designers from the 2003 product line. You can still use the text based designers in Access 2003 or you can use Management Studio Express, which can be downloaded free of charge from the download link above.

· Access 2003 does not understand the new User-Schema separation implemented in SQL Server 2005. Databases migrated from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2005 will still work as expected. You should have no problems working with new database in SQL Server 2005 as long as you don't use User-Schema separation.

· Access 2003 doesn't know about the new SQL Server 2005 data types. In my experience, the new types are shown as Memo when part of a Linked Table

Access 2007 has been updated to address these issues. More information is available about Access 2007 on the Microsoft Office beta web site.

Mike Wachal

Best Practice Analyzer for ASP.NET

sqlexpress — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 03:33:00 GMT

Joe Morel, from the Developer Solutions team just blogged about the Alpha release of the ASP.NET BPA, a tool that will help users properly configure their ASP.NET sites.

Those of you that build data bound ASP.NET sites know that configuring the site for data access can be particularly challenging. I encourage you to read Joe's blog to learn about this tool and then download the Alpha release. You can help the Developer Solutions team out with this tool by posting suggestions to thier Forum.

Mike