It turns out that, instead of downloading SQL Server 2014 Developer Edition from my MSDN subscriber downloads I downloaded it from the Visual Studio Essentials download.

Because only one version was...

Never saw that one comming!

I don't see that happening.

It is more likely to see SQL Server and Windows baked together into something you can put in a box than SQL Server being ported to...

And, since then, Windows ships with SQLite and .NET runs almost everywhere.

Looks like my data is in some strange collation that I can't find out what it is, and that is my problem.

Sorry to have wasted your time.

I'm sorry but I failed to get an answer from the provided link.

I have a query that evaluates into an XML document.

I want to read it with SqlCommand.ExecuteXmlReader.

But the accented...

As a norm, I only use double quotes when I intend the string to be interpolated. When I want to use the string as it is, I use single quotes....