Quite often it happens that SQL Server Management Studio’s Dropdown box is cluttered with many different SQL Server’s name. Sometime it contains the name of the server which does not exist or developer does not have access to it. It is very easy to clean the list and start over.
Delete mru.dat file from following location.
For SQL Server 2005:
C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\Shell\mru.dat
If you can not find mru.dat at above location look for mru.dat in following folder.
C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\ShellSEM\mru.dat
For SQL Server 2008:
C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Shell\mru.dat
If you can not find mru.dat at above location look for mru.dat in following folder.
C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\ShellSEM\mru.dat
If you are using VISTA OS instead of XP OS. Replace C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Application Data\Microsoft\ with
C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\ and it should work.
Make sure to take note down any IP address of SQL Server you may need in future.
Watch the video on the same subject:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRWsqaWlQ24]Reference : Pinal Dave (http://www.SQLAuthority.com)
27 Comments. Leave new
C:\Users\ADMIN\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Shell.SqlStudio.bin( for windows 7 os)
I was looking to extend my server list from long time..and found the solution because of your blog…..
Many Thanks.
Rather than deleting or renaming this file:
1)Close SQL Management Studio
2)Find the appropriate file(see post or responses above)
3)Open the .bin in a text/hex editior like NotePad++
4)Search for the name of one of the servers and identify the line number
5)Make a copy of the .bin/.dat file
6)Delete that line, make sure you delete the entire line, its possible if you have many the line could wrap.
7)Open SQL Management Studio your dropdown will be blank
I found this link while trying to figure out how to remove the login name from saved SQL server connections. The nutshell is to highlight the servername in the dropdown and press Delete to remove it. This also removes the associated login names, which was my problem.
From SQL 2012 You can now Press DELETE button in drop down list to remove the item in list
Very true.
I would like to move or copy the entries to another version of SSMS? So all the entries I have for 2014 I want them to appear for 2016, how can I do that?