SSMS 17 was released today. This is a quick first look at some of the additions and changes that immediately stand out to me.

Bug Fix

One bug that’s been bugging me was the sudden disappearance of the Azure SQL Database “create firewall rule” dialog, as described in the MSDN forums here. Per Connect, this should be fixed in SSMS 17 RTW. And so it *appears*, but here is the kicker: it also *appears* to work again in SSMS 16. So it appears the issue may not have been with SSMS (which I never believed because it just stopped working without SSMS having been updated), but with Azure SQL Database.

I do have to note I have so far only tried SSMS 16’s connection to Azure SQL DB from a machine where SSMS 17 is also installed. It is possible that SSMS 17 contains a bug fix (or like an update to the API that triggered the dialog) that happens to share code with SSMS 16.

Update: 2017-05-01: I have now tried this on a system that doesn’t have SSMS 17 installed yet and SSMS 16 does also allow adding firewall rules again.

Even so, appearances are deceiving. While the dialog box shows and you can sign in to your Azure account, a related bug hasn’t been fixed yet. If you have multiple subscriptions in that Azure account and the Azure SQL DB resource isn’t in your default subscription (which you can’t change, AFAIK), you still get an HTTP 401 error. However, the feature works correctly if you only have one subscription.

Installer

  • The installer download is actually smaller than v16. Still a hefty 730MB, but that means it lost about 170MB.
  • Can be installed side-by-side with SSMS pre-16 and 16. (why?)

User Interface

  • A new application icon, and the version number is now included in the Start Menu entry.
SSMS17 new icon
A new icon and Start Menu entry.
  • Still uses the VS 2015 shell. On the one hand, not surprising because VS 2017 was released fairly recently. But on the other hand, was the release of VS 2017 a surprise to the SSMS team?
  • New icons in the shell should work much better with high DPI screens. Not tested, but they appear flatter and with fewer colors:
SSMS17 Flatter icons
Icons are flatter in SSMS 17 (left) than previous versions (right).

The official feature list is on docs.microsoft.com (specifically, here). That’s also where you can find a download link.

Let me know what you think, or ask a question...

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