SQL Server 2008: Create administrator account without admin login

Deploying our development machines from virtual machine templates saves us a lot of time, however every now and then we hit frustrating little speed bumps. Here is the latest – SQL Server 2008 / SQL Server 2008 Express not having an administrator account enabled.

To fix this problem you must first stop the SQL Server 2008 instance, and start it in “single user mode” (you need to be local administrator for this to work).

  1. Stop the SQL Server instance in Service Manager
  2. Open cmd prompt
  3. browse to appropriate SQL Server installation: e.g. cd\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.SQLEXPRESS\MSSQL\Binn
  4. Start SQL Server in single user mode using the “-m” switch:
    For a default instance: sqlservr.exe -m
    For SQLEXPRESS/named instance: sqlservr.exe -m -sSQLEXPRESS
  5. You can now connect to the SQL Server instance via SQL Server Management Console and create your administrative user, or use SQLCMD from the command prompt e.g.:
    C:\> SQLCMD -S .\SQLEXPRESS -E
    1> CREATE LOGIN [YOURDOMAIN\justin] FROM WINDOWS
    2> go
    1> exec sp_addsrvrolemember @loginame='YOURDOMAIN\justin', @rolename='sysadmin'
    2> go
    
  6. Stop the server (Ctrl+C)
  7. Start the service again from Service Manager

Where to download Silverlight 5.0.61118.0 Tools/SDK/Developer Runtime

Here are the links required to prepare a Silverlight 5 development environment for those that need to target Silverlight 5.0.61118.0 even when Microsoft remove the links to the downloads from their download site(s). Both the Developer runtime and normal runtime for 32-bit and 64-bit are included.
Continue reading Where to download Silverlight 5.0.61118.0 Tools/SDK/Developer Runtime