Thanks for your help Sean, I'm looking at that now ...

Lowell, thank you, that's a great help ...

Sean, to be honest, I'm not looking for people to write this for me (though it would be nice and save me days, if not weeks, of hassle & stress),...

Apologies for not getting back sooner on this topic, but I am having other problems with C#.

Those registry keys appear to work fine, so that problem seems to be resolved...

That is one thing, jcb, that I did find ... but I didn't want to bring it to table straight away, in case it was a "quick 'n' easy" solution...

Thanks everybody, this is a long slow process, but I am learning as I go along, I'm also finding that a lot of the time it's that I don't know...

I have used that key to ascertain instances of SQL Server installed on the PC, mine just says "SQLEXPRESS" & "MSSQL10_50.SQLEXPRESS" as the Value Data. Maybe I am getting ahead...

Sorted ... mySQL = key.GetValueNames().First();

gary.p.heath (3/22/2012)

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I know that the following will load all of the String Names (i.e. all instances of SQL Server) into my ComboBox ...

RegistryKey key = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(@"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft...

Hi GSquared, thanks for your reply ... I guess that wherever I get the information from is fine, especially at the moment when I am still at the bottom of...

Lowell, you have made more sense and taught me more in the past hour than I have been able to learn in the past week over at CodeProject.com !!! Why...

Again, thank you Lowell ... having read and discussed a lot about VS2010 & SQL Server, I, too, think that there are way too many variables in areas of the...

OK, thank you, that makes sense.

No, my program is a Windows Form with multiple Tabs that allows the user to update the database (yearly maintenance) and then process the data...

It certainly seems that VS2010 gets its knickers in a twist when you add a New Database within the Project and then use the Debug routine.

I have resolved this now...

It's not SQL Server ?!? This is some learning curve I've got myself into !!!

OK, thanks, I'll obviously leave the question open, there are so many similar questions on the...