Creating and Using MSDE

Below is the procedure I used to create a Microsfot SQL Server Desktop Edition (MSDE).

Find the product on the web. It is free. Download and then extract it.

The default directory was c:\msdereia

From the command prompt run

setup.exe SAPWD="password" INSTANCENAME="NAV"

set the password and instanvename do what ever you want.

For my purposes I was setting this up for the SAV Reporting server.

I found that this set up in windows authentication mode.

The instance is not started up by default. So go to the services panel and start a service
mssql$instancename where instance name is your instance.

Therfore to connect to the database from the command prompt enter

osql -E -S servername\instancename

You will now be at a 1> prompt. You have now confirmed your databse is up and running.

I found that for the SAV reporting server I needed to be in what is called mixed mode.

Stop the instance service.

To achieve this I changed the following registry value from 1 to 0

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\myinstance\MSSQLServer and the key Loginmode.

You can now connect to the datbase as follows

osql -U sa -S server\instancename and you will be promted for a password.

On correct entry of password you will be at the 1> prompt

This was my reference.

http://www.codeproject.com/database/ConfigureMSDE.asp