Database

How to Install SQL Server Management Studio in SQL Server 2016

By Muhammad Kamran | Published January 24, 2023

The installation of SQL Server management studio 2016 (SSMS) has been changed with the introduction of the SQL Server 2016 release. In earlier SQL Server versions, SQL management studio was installed as a part of the SQL Server Instance installation, but now in SQL Server 2016, SSMS 2016 is installed separately.

Now that SQL management studio 2016 can be installed separately, it can be used along with the other version of SSMS. SSMS 2016 has come up with a few new changes, which include installing Visual Studio 2015 isolated Shell and .NET framework 4.6.1. SQL Server management studio 2016 also supports the Always Encrypted feature and includes a new SQL PowerShell module. To check all the new features of management studio 2016, visit the Microsoft page and scroll to the 2016 version.

SSMS 2016 Compatibility with older SQL instances

One of the benefits of using SSMS 2016 is that it is compatible with the older version of SQL Server Instances. SQL management studio 2016 can be used to work with the following SQL versions:

• SQL Server 2016
• SQL Server 2014
• SQL Server 2012
• SQL Server 2008 R2
• Azure SQL Data Warehouse
• SQL Azure

According to Microsoft, SSMS 2016 can also be used for SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2000 but some of its features may not work correctly.

Steps to Install SQL Server Management Studio 2016

To Install SQL Server management studio 2016, Open the installation media for SQL Server 2016, right-click on the setup file, and select Run as Administrator. This will open the SQL Server Installation Center. Click on Installation, and then on Install SQL Server Management Tools as shown in the below screenshot.

After you click the Install SQL Server Management Tools, you will be redirected to Download Center to download SSMS 2016. You also have the option to download SQL server management studio 2016 directly. Once you download the SSMS 2016 setup file, run the setup file to display the installation screen as shown below.

Click on the install button to start the SSMS 2016 installation. If you face any issues in the installation, you can check the setup logs stored in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local \temp\SsmsSetup for troubleshooting.

After the successful installation of SSMS 2016, you can check for updates manually from Tools > Check for Updates, although it is not usually required as SQL management studio 2016 automatically checks online for updates.

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