Microsoft never ceases to Amaze me. I can think of no other company that is so inconsistantly inconsistant. Case in point is SQL Server Express 2005 that comes free with VisualStudio 2005. This is a cut down version of the database for people who are doing development work. People like me.

Microsoft did release a version for the previous version of SQLserver, and it was called MSDE. And if you wanted to administer this there was no GUI. Of course since then it would compete with SQLserver. Now comes 2005, and they did provide an admin program. Except I cannot work out what it is supposed to administer. I think it just says how an admin program can connect. That is it. So they dont want me to be able to use this unless I am a guru. That is fine.

Then I search for instructions. And guess what? I find them. Not only that, I find a fairly good admin program here for free from Microsoft. Now, why didn’t they just provide this with VisualStudio? Who knows! All I know is that I have wasted ages sorting this out. Welcome to my life!