SQL Server Management Studio 2005 “Remember Password” doesn't work

Question

Folks,

I connect to a large number of SQL Server 2005 databases through SQL Server Management Studio 2005. I frequently check off "Remember password", yet the next time I try to connect it doesn't actually remember it. Have you had this experience? Any workarounds?

Answer 1

According to the bug report this is a known issue, still not fixed and there is no workaround.

Answer 2

Here is a workaround that I've used. It's lame, but in the absence of a real fix, this works for me!

Add another hostname for the server. An example of this would be, if you are trying to get it to remember the name for "coolserver1" then create yourself a hostname that resolves to the same server but by a different name, perhaps "mycoolserver" or something like that.

You can do that by adding an entry to your hostfile (c:\windows\system32\drivers\ets\hosts), or by some DNS or other Windows/AD trickery. The point being that you can now address that server by a new "name."

Then, use that new name in the connect dialog, with your name/password, and hit the "remember me" checkbox, and it really will remember you :)

Enjoy!

Answer 3

This happens to me also, but it is most notable when I'm connecting to different servers. If you connect to the same server every time then it should remember your password every time.

Maybe one day, SP3 perhaps, Microsoft will release a nice fix for this somewhat continuous annoyance.