It's an old story you've probably heard before.  Provide a free version of your software product with strict limitations on performance or other specific capabilities so that folks can give it a try without risk, while you minimize the chance of cannibalizing sales of your commercial products.  Microsoft has take this strategy ...

 (Note: I have re-written parts of this post in the light of the comments that SP1 of 2012 include Complete tools.)  I have decided to revisit the topic of whats included in Express Edition, with focus on the tools. I have a couple of reasons for this: In my 2011 post, I never tried to connect from Express SSMS to a non-Express ...

Chances are that you rarely get to see the Express Edition of SQL Server if you mainly work with servers. This blog post is inspired from a forum discussion where some functionality is missing in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and I suspected that the tools were installed as a Basic installation instead of Complete installation. So how do I ...

For those of you that have been wanting to try out SQL Server 2008 R2, you can download the November CTP of Express here (posted yesterday) and the full version of the November CTP here.  This is version 10.50.1352.12.  The full version is an evaluation edition and will expire after 180 days.  I am not sure when the full version of ...

In October, I complained (surprise, surprise) on behalf of Express users that you had to download an entire Express package (with Tools or with Advanced Services) in order to install the basic Management Studio Express, even if you already had the engine installed and had no need for another instance.  (For SQL Server 2005, a standalone ...

Early reports indicate that some users running Express <= SP2 are getting SP3 for Express pushed to their system automatically as an important update, rather than recommended, which means that some users are getting it without even knowing about it.  Even though the official Release Services blog states that this behavior shouldn't start ...

Sorry I missed this yesterday with all the excitement over the Visual Studio SP1 release (which allowed some people to finally install the SQL Server 2008 release from last week).  Yesterday also marked the release of SQL Server 2008 Express Edition, which you can download here: http://www.microsoft.com/express/sql/default.aspx You can ...