Announcing SQL Server Management Studio -16.3 (August 2016) Release

Today, we are very pleased to announce the latest generally-available (GA) quality release of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) following the SQL Server 2016 release. This update of SSMS features a switch from monthly-branded SSMS releases (e.g. August 2016 release) to numerically-branded SSMS releases (e.g. 16.3 release). This update also features a new Active Directory authentication option, new PowerShell cmdlets to help perform SQL Server login management, initial beta support for high-resolution displays, support for filtering in the ‘Databases’ node of the Object explorer, and many more improvements and bug fixes.

Get it here:                                                            Download SSMS 16.3 (August 2016) release

• The version number for the latest release is 13.0.15700.28

New in this release

1. SSMS monthly releases are now branded numerically.
2. New authentication option 'Active Directory Universal Authentication' . This is a token-based authentication mechanism driven by Azure Active Directory that supports multi-factor, password, and integrated authentication mechanisms. Learn more about Active Directory Universal Authentication.
3. New Extended Events templates matching the functionality of SQL Server Profiler templates (Microsoft Connect item #2543925). Learn more about the included SQL Server Profiler templates.
   
4. New 'Get-SqlLogin' and 'Remove-SqlLogin' cmdlets to help perform SQL Server login management using PowerShell(Microsoft Connect item #2588952).
5. New PowerShell cmdlet 'New-SqlColumnMasterKeySettings' that adds support for creation of column master keys for arbitrary providers and key paths.
6. New 'Create database' dialog to streamline creation of Azure SQL databases in SSMS.
7. Support for filtering in the 'Databases' node of SSMS Object Explorer. Navigate to the 'Databases' node in Object explorer and click the filter icon in the Object explorer toolbar to filter the list of databases.
   
8. Support for Azure-Resource Manager (ARM) type storage accounts in the Backup and Restore wizards.
9. Initial beta support for high-resolution displays. You can learn more about how to enable this in this follow-up blog post.(Microsoft Connect item #1129301).
10. Improvements in Database Engine Tuning Advisor (DTA) to support automatically reading a workload from the SQL Server Query Store.
11. Improvements in Database Engine Tuning Advisor (DTA) to display index recommendations for clustered columnstore indexes, non-clustered columnstore indexes, and rowstore indexes.
12. Support for sending Database Console (DBCC) commands using SQL Server Analysis Services PowerShell cmdlets.
13. Bug fix to view cleartext of decrypted AlwaysEncrypted large object (LOB) columns in SSMS (Microsoft Connect item #2413024).
14. Bug fix in Always Encrypted dialog to fix crash when Windows visual styles aren't enabled (e.g. enabling high contrast display).
15. Bug fix for 'Method not found' error preventing connection to SQL Server instances (Microsoft Connect item #2925257).
16. Bug fix for SSMS crash when creating a partition function with datetime offset.
17. Bug fix to remove Microsoft .NET 3.5 requirement for starting Distributed Replay administration tool (DReplay.exe).
18. Bug fix in Analysis Services Deployment wizard to support fully-qualified server names.
19. Bug fix in SSMS to display partitions in Analysis Services tabular models with a 2016 compatibility model (Microsoft Connect item #2845053).
20. Performance improvements and bug fixes in Analysis services tabular models, and SQL Server Shared Management Objects (SMO).
21. Improvements to LQS and operator progress. You can learn more about this in this blog post.

Please visit the SSMS download page for additional details, and to see the full changelog.

Known Issues

The full list of known issues is available in Release notes available here.

Contact us

As always, if you have any questions or feedback, please visit our forum or Microsoft Connect page. You can also tweet our Engineering Manager at @sqltoolsguy on Twitter. We are fully committed to improve the SSMS experience and look forward to hearing from you!

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 15, 2016
  There are 2 issues with previous versions. Assuming these issues have not been addressed with this release:1) Whenever SSMS gets closed after running some SQL statements, the save solution window pops up. Is there a way to disable this behavior?2) Whenever Visual Studio gets updated or features are added/removed, SSMS settings get reset afterwards because the VS Isolated Shell has been changed.. Is there a workaround available to prevent this?
  • Anonymous
    August 16, 2016
    The comment has been removed
    • Anonymous
      August 17, 2016
      Thanks for the response!1) The option you mentioned works for 'unsaved' query windows, but NOT for 'unsaved' solutions.2) Well, it is not the SSMS installer causing this behavior, but the Visual Studio installer. Any change to Visual Studio (adding/removing features or updates) will trigger SSMS settings to be reset.
      • Anonymous
        August 19, 2016
        1). We're tracking this 'unsaved' solution issue in this Connect item and you should see a fix for this in upcoming months: https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/26126352). Would you be able to provide a short list of the Visual studio features you added/removed that caused SSMS to reset? It would help us repro and debug this appropriately. For Visual Studio updates, the recent Visual Studio Update 3 was the last update for the Visual studio 2015 shell - so shouldn't see reset from this avenue for a while.
• Anonymous
  August 15, 2016
  Always nice to see a recent article with dead links in it.
  • Anonymous
    August 16, 2016
    Thanks for your comment. The link has been updated now.
• Anonymous
  August 16, 2016
  Just installed it. Caused SSMS to not start. When I run the application nothing happens. Even after a restart.
  • Anonymous
    August 16, 2016
    Hi Karl, This is unfortunate to hear. Would you mind sending your SSMS logs to ssmsfeedback [at] microsoft [dot] com so we can take a look?
    • Anonymous
      August 17, 2016
      I have the same issue with SSMS not starting. Where is the log file for SSMS located?
      • Anonymous
        August 17, 2016
        Doing a repair on the SSMS 16.3 install fixed my issue.
      • Anonymous
        August 19, 2016
        Same issue here, wish I'd read this post before installing.
      • Anonymous
        August 23, 2016
        I have the same issue. SSMS doesn't start anymore.
  • Anonymous
    August 18, 2016
    The comment has been removed
    • Anonymous
      August 29, 2016
      Thanks Matt. I played around with compatibility options and it worked for me as well.
• Anonymous
  August 16, 2016
  The link "Learn more about Active Directory Universal Authentication" results in page cannot be found.
  • Anonymous
    August 16, 2016
    Thanks for your comment. The link has been updated now.
• Anonymous
  August 16, 2016
  Some reason new SSMS Crashes when open Object ExplorerRest of functionalities forks fineAnd create thing - F1 works now as supposed :)
• Anonymous
  August 17, 2016
  For my team it looks like the token is timing out and not refreshing correctly. After logging in after a period of time we start getting errors about anonymous login not having access.
• Anonymous
  August 18, 2016
  Quick question I've wondered about the recent releases of SSMS. At 3840x2160 resolution the UI is still quite blurred compared with the UI of the full Visual Studio 2015 (like SSMS is implementing some form of native UI scaling). I was of the understanding that SSMS uses a subversion of Visual Studio 2015 (Isolated Shell), if this is the case why does the SSMS UI look so different/blurred?
  • Anonymous
    August 25, 2016
    The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  August 21, 2016
  Should have a way to edit and delete register right in the result grid. Edit top 200 is not quite good enough.
  • Anonymous
    August 25, 2016
    Hi Vitor, Thanks for the feedback. Please submit suggestions and ideas to the Connect site. This helps us track these requests and provides us a somewhat public forum for posting updates on progress: https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/FeedbackSomething that might you might want to look into is the 'SQL pane' option that becomes available when you run an 'Edit top 200' command. You can write queries in this window that return results in the result grid you can edit. This StackOverflow thread provides useful context and more info: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2004789/how-to-alter-sql-in-edit-top-200-rows-in-ssms-2008
    • Anonymous
      August 28, 2016
      Thanks. That was exactly what I'm referring to. I've already use this feature but the problem is the change in your work workflow to make it usable.First you need open the server explorer. After you expand database, find database, expand tables, find table and finally Edit top 200.But sure I will submit the idea in the appropriate area. ?
• Anonymous
  August 23, 2016
  After installing ssms 2016 v 16.3 release, when I click any database of SQL Server 2012 R2 from network and click properties and click Permissions management studio is crashing.Open ssmsconnect any db server from network (SQL Server 2012 R2 - SP3)click db propertiesclick "Permissions"SQL Server Management studio 2016 v 16.3 is crashing and restarting and then if you do these steps again it crashing again and again.Please fix.One another issue is :Click Server, click security, click loginsselect any user and then click properties Click user mapping, on right side list of all databases, the scroll option is not appearing and missing to show all databases if there are several databases, management studio is not showing all databases in that default windows size.There might be other bugs that I have not seen yet, This is a very old product coming from decay and it should not appear with such minor but very common bugs.After uninstall this version of SSMS 16.3 and install older version of SSMS does not open SSMS anyway even fails with windows authentication and I had to install 16.3 again with these bugs. Please look into these problems and inform as soon the fix is available.shamshad_ali74@hotmail.comshamshadali74@gmail.com
• Anonymous
  August 24, 2016
  When you go to Security | Logins and Add/Edit a login, then go to the 'User Mapping' page, on servers with a long list of databases, the scroll bar is not working correctly. I had to use my arrow keys and the space bar to check/uncheck databases in that window.Also curious when the 'Dark' theme option will be coming to match Visual Studio Dark theme. That will be a nice one to have. :)
  • Anonymous
    September 01, 2016
    I second that!
  • Anonymous
    September 09, 2016
    I third that :)Also that scroll bar issue is flipping annoying!! Lets hope they fix it soon.
    • Anonymous
      September 28, 2016
      yeeeaeaasssss please dark theme.. ! im going blind from all these bright white photons :(
• Anonymous
  August 25, 2016
  Hello,Unfortunately SQL Server Management Studio 13.0.15700.28 won't connect to an Integration Services 10.50.2500 instance (aka SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1). It will throw the same error message as SQL Server Management Studio 11.0.5058.0 about "Class Not Registered".Of course this instance will open fine with SQL Server Management Studio 10.50.2500.0 which therefore I have to keep installed.Regards,Clement RATELConfiguration:SQL Server Management Studio 13.0.15700.28SQL Server Management Studio 11.0.5058.0SQL Server Management Studio 10.50.2500.0
  • Anonymous
    August 25, 2016
    Hi Clement, There is a known compatibility limitation with SQL Server Integration Services that prevents connecting to previous versions with current SSMS releases. The only workaround is to use a previous SSMS release as you have done. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt238486.aspx
    • Anonymous
      August 25, 2016
      Hi SQL Server Engineering Team, thank you for your answer.
• Anonymous
  August 30, 2016
  Are there any existing versions of SSMS that work over a Citrix (i.e. remote) connection? Are there any current plans for this functionality in future?
• Anonymous
  September 01, 2016
  Hi,I have at present for my PC setup... Windows Pro 32 Bit with SP1, SQL Server 2008r2, Visual Studio 2010.I tried to Install SQL Server Management Studio -16.3 version... and the install starts but then without an error message just fizzles out and stops... and then nothing.... Is My PC setup is not adequate ?? - I thought i saw on the read me specs for this 16.3 version download that this is an independent install from my resource setup.Advise ??CJ
• Anonymous
  September 09, 2016
  You removed the ability to filter by schema under the Databases \ your database \ tables \ Filter settings? That's normal or a bug?
• Anonymous
  September 16, 2016
  The "Recent Files" in the File menu is being populated with temporary files from closed unsaved query windows."c:\users\username\appdata\local\temp~vsA632.sql""c:\users\username\appdata\local\temp~vsE61E.sql"etc..They serve no purpose since clicking on them says "file cannot be opened. Do you want to remove the reference from Recent Files". It really clutters the menu.
• Anonymous
  September 21, 2016
  I have found a couple issues:1) Twice, when changing connections on the query editor, it doesn't connect and the connection attempt never times out.2) The User Mapping screen does not have a scroll bar on the right when there are more databases then the window can hold. You also cannot scroll down with arrow keys. So, you cannot get through a long database last.