How to get rid of old servers in SSMS ?

• SQL Guy 1

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  October 20, 2010 at 9:26 am

  #230106

  When I start SSMS, it displays a list of servers in Connect to Server dialog box. But it displays a lot of old servers which we are not using any more. At the same time there is no room there for new, recently typed server names.

  How can I get rid from old ones ?

  Thanks

• Lowell

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  October 20, 2010 at 9:44 am

  #1239779

  that threw me off too, as i expected it to be in a registry setting, but it's actually in a binary file.

  it's an all or nothing thing, as far as i know...you can wipe the history, but not selectively remove old servers, i think.

  look for this file:

  %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\

  (For SQL Server 2008 should be 100 instead of 90)

  For SQL 2005, delete the file:

  C:\Documents and Settings\(UserLogin)\Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\Shell\mru.dat

  For SQL 2008, they changed the name of the file:

  C:\Documents and Settings\(UserLogin)\Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Shell\SqlStudio.bin

  Lowell

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• SQL Guy 1

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  October 20, 2010 at 11:29 am

  #1239839

  Thanks, Lowell, but I found slightly different file names.

  2005: ....Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\Shell\1033\SqlWb.CTM

  2008: ....Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Shell\1033\ssms.CTM

  But modified timestamps for them look too old: 2005 is for March, and 2008 is for July this year.

  But anyway, what should be better, to delete these files or empty them and save ?

• Lowell

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  October 20, 2010 at 12:04 pm

  #1239850

  I opened my SQLStudio.bin file with a text editor, and it's a mix of readable strings and binary stuff;

  when i looked into this before, every recommendation was to simply delete the file, since it gets rebuilt dynamically; if it was an empty file, it might not work correctly, so i'd delete them.

  Lowell

  ---

  --help us help you! If you post a question, make sure you include a CREATE TABLE... statement and INSERT INTO... statement into that table to give the volunteers here representative data. with your description of the problem, we can provide a tested, verifiable solution to your question! asking the question the right way gets you a tested answer the fastest way possible!