Today is the eagerly anticipated launch of SQL Server 2014, I have downloaded and installed a copy of the RTM product and had a play. During some intensive testing I found that there is a new undocumented feature which will allow all registry keys to be available inside of your systems environmental variables. It also means that the default directory for databases, backups, filestreams and any other files you want to import / export will seamlessly connect and work even if you do not specify a path!

How do you turn this on I hear you ask?

Simply enter “-SatNav” as a startup parameter

or

Use traceflag -20140401

As you would expect from initial findings this appears to be an Enterprise only feature.