Overview of Visual Database Tools

You can access Microsoft Visual Database Tools from your development environment to help create and manage data-driven applications.

The Visual Database Tools let you connect to a database and view and manipulate its structure and data. There are five tools in this tool set, each providing its own set of features.

Note

Visual Database Tools works best with Microsoft SQL Server databases. If you are not using a Microsoft SQL Server database some features may not be available.

This version of Visual Database Tools does not support Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and earlier.

For information on which features are available in your edition of Visual Studio, and for your database management system, see Visual Database Tools Editions.

In This Section

• What's New in Visual Database Tools
  Describes new and improved features of Visual Database Tools.

• Visual Database Tools Editions
  Describes which features are available for each edition of Visual Studio. Also describes which features are available for different database management systems.

• Work You Can Do With the Visual Database Tools
  Learn how Visual Database Tools can help you design, query, and manage your database.

Reference

• Reference (Visual Database Tools)
  Provides links to general reference topics covering queries, operators, search conditions, specific DBMS requirements, user interface reference topics, and error message topics.

Related Sections

• Understanding Visual Database Tools
  Provides an overview of the tools included and how to manage large database projects.

• Creating and Managing Databases and Data-tier Applications in Visual Studio
  Provides information about how you can use database projects, server projects, and Data-tier Application projects to manage changes to your database or server.