At work I got installed the new SQL server 2005 express edition, with VS.Net 2005. Through the Visual Studio's server explorer I was unable to connect to my SQL express. After trying different things, I downloaded the SQL Server Management Studio Express CTP. But it had so many runtime bugs, that I couldn't help stop using it.
I even tried setting up the TCP/IP and NamedPipes protocol to 'enabled' in the Configuration management tool of SQL server 2005. This is done to enable remote connections.
After doing a lot of search on the internet, finally found the solution to this problem.
When you connect through the Visual Studio 2005 server explorer, you need to specify “.\SQLExpress” as the server name as opposed to “yourservername” or “(local)” or “SQLExpress”. Simple solution but bad problem.
I am on SQL server 2005 express now, right within the VStudio and the tool is damn good and fast.
Note: On a different note, SQL server 2005 has special “Xml” datatype which you can use to store XML documents, and dynamically “XQuery” them and setup relational database type of functionality. I am going to explore it now.