I set all my tool bars to be fly outs and it is fairly annoying how slow the animation is.  I found this link and decided to try it out and it works great!  http://blogs.msdn.com/euanga/archive/2007/10/01/ssms-window-animation-speed.aspx I would be interested in knowing other configuration settings you can change in that file as ...

If you have ever dropped a database and found yourself not able to login because your default database no longer exists you know it can be quite annoying.  You can still connect through query analyzer by connecting to a different database, but you won't be able to do anything through the object explorer as it always defaults to your default ...

I frequently need to look at what indexes are on a table and I am really not a fan of using object explorer in SSMS as I like to stay in the query window.  Typically if I want information about a table I simply highlight the table name in the query window and hit Alt-F1.  If you aren't familiar with keyboard shortcuts in SSMS see my post ...

I needed to use xp_cmdshell recently and discovered that it isn't on by default on SQL Server 2005.  I had to dig a bit to find out how to enable it.  The code is very simple.  Figured I would blog it here so I can easily find it next time.   EXECUTE sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1 RECONFIGURE WITH ...

I recently had a need to load a bunch of pdf files into my database.  The problem was that the directory the files were in contained a bunch of other pdf files that I didn't want or that were no longer needed so I couldn't just upload every PDF in the directory.  I did have a database table that contained all the file names ...

I recently needed to move the TempDB on my Sql Server so I looked in Books Online and my initial thought based on what it said was that there is no way that will work.  Basically it says to find where the files are, and then move them to the new location followed by an alter statement to point the database at the new location.  Well of ...

I have found the SQL Server 2005 templates to be extremely useful.  I have created custom templates for creating a new stored procedure, scalar functions, table-value functions and views.  The benefit of these is that it creates a standard for creating these SQL objects.  In my templates I have also included hooks to source ...

These templates are for creating stored procedures, functions, and views.  See the readme in the zip file for instructions on using them or go to http://sqladvice.com/blogs/gstark/ for more details.

This is a template that I have been using in SQL server for when I do have to write cursors.  Notice that there is only one fetch statement in there which is much slicker than the typical method of initially doing a fetch, with a while condition of while (@@fetch_status <> 0) and then another fetch in the while loop.  This ...

I had mentioned to the North Dallas DNUG when I presented a while back that I didn't like the idea of passing back a DataReader at all from a DAL.  You lose control of what happens to it when you do (as in the DAL no longer has the responsibility of closing the reader and ensuring its disposal).  Well, Teemu Kieski had a great idea ...