A while back I ran into a problem when setting up SQL Server on a computer and using it along with a database project in Visual Studio. It isn’t really a big deal, but I needed to change which locally installed instance of SQL Server I was using by default with Visual Studio. Since I blogged about this previously it is a very nice reference for where to find that setting should the need to change it arise again.
Today I just sat down at a computer which had Visual Studio pointing to a SQL Express instance. Yesterday I installed SQL Server on the computer, so I went to change to the new SQL Server instance. What was my first step? I Googled for my blog post I’d previously written, because I knew it had nice screen shots to show me exactly what I was looking for.
I simply searched for, “change database Brendan Enrick”. The top hit on Google was my previous post explaining how to change the SQL Server Instance for a Visual Studio Database Project. As I mention in that post, I expected the setting to be DB Project specific not VS specific. Now I know better, and I just use the blog post for a quick solution.
Step one is to go to the Tools menu in Visual Studio and choose Options…
Now that the Options windows is open in the left side navigation tree select Database Tools and then Design-time Validation Database. Once that screen is visible there is a text box to change the SQL Server Instance Name. Set that to the name of your desired SQL Server Instance. In my case the default one, so I erased the existing value.
This is one of the big reasons why I am a strong believer in blogging. It is a quick easy way to get this information out for others to use. Posts like this often get a few comments of thanks from people they helped. If helping others in the development community is not enough of a reason, you also always have a record to help you if you run into the same problem again.
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