Thursday, April 03, 2008

Post Visual Studio Uninstall of SQL Express

On occasion I've someone I know has inadvertently installed SQL Express as part of the Visual Studio install, after having already set up a development machine where the real SQL Server (whichever flavor) is already installed.

Running the VS install again and looking under the Change/Remove Options won't help you remove SQL Express in this case.  Instead, head over to Control Panel's Add or Remove Programs section and you'll find the listing for Microsoft SQL Server 2005.  It's not clear from the screen, but clicking Remove here will give you an option for which instance of SQL you want to remove: SQL Express or the "real" SQL.

A couple more clicks of "Next" and "Finish" and poof! SQL Express is gone.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice post. I actually had a similar issue with VS and SQL Express, but in reverse. I installed VS first (with SQL Express) then I tried to install the client tools for MS SQL Server Management Studio 2k5 Pro. I kept getting, "Component is already installed" and the MSSMS Pro installing would stop. I fixed the problem by first uninstalling SQL Express, and then installing MSSMS Pro again. If I would have read this post first uninstalling SQL Express would have been much easier.

Anonymous said...

Thanks! Alot easier than a a rip and replace!!!

Jeff Hunsaker said...

Saved me a lot of time...thanks, Jim.

Charley Jones said...

Nice posting.
Saved me some time.
Frustrating the install program still does not have a remove option in 2008.

Sean Walsh said...

Many thanks. Nice tip.

Anonymous said...

what about sql 2008? if I installed a VS 2008 and then uninstalled it and then installed SQL 2008 but SQL express still stays there and I am finding no way to uninstall it.

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