SSMS Status Bar Colors

I want to share this quick post for setting the color of the status bar in Management Studio (SSMS).

This post is also part of the #SQLNewBlogger challenge that Ed Leighton-Dick (@eleightondick | b) started back in April 2015:

TL;DR – In April, I’m challenging myself to write (and publish!) here regularly, and I’m extending an open challenge to other new bloggers to do the same.

You can read about his idea and the origin in his blog post, for my post on SSMS keep on reading here!

In SSMS, you can go to Tools > Options > Text Editor > Editor Tab and Status Bar.

In the Status Bar Layout and Colors part, you can set the default colors for Single server connections (the standard) and Group connections. The colors you set here are for all connections when you don’t explicitly set another color for the current connection

One-time Connection Color

When you want to set a different color for a one-time connection you can do so in the Connect to Server dialog:

Click on Options >> and go to the Connection Properties tab.

In the bottom, select User custom color: and click on Select… You can select your own color there
Just keep in mind that setting the property here will keep it until you deselect it the next time. So if you don’t want this color to be applied to all subsequent connections you make, you’ll have to uncheck the box the next time you connect to a database via this connection box.

Registered Server connection

Instead of connecting to a specific database via the Connect to Server dialog, you can “save” a server/connection as a registered server. You can do this via Registered Servers > New Server Registration. On the Connection Properties tab you can also apply a custom color here as you see in the picture below, so you don’t have to undo applying the color when you’re connecting to other servers.

If you like this type of basic posts be sure to check out the #SQLNewBlogger hashtag on twitter.

@NickyvV