Mirosoft Director of Sales Excellence, Eric Ligman, writes a post about 100s of FREE Microsoft eBooks each year.
These are legal DRM-free copies (PDF/EPUB/MOBI) on various Microsoft technologies like Windows, SQL Server, Azure, SharePoint, PowerShell, Visual Studio, Office, Dynamics etc.
The titles may repeat in multiple links below so I’d suggest that you begin browsing at the latest year URL and go backwards from there.
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
Microsoft announced the general availability of SQL Server 2016 today. This version has many path-breaking updates for performance, security and business intelligence. On top of that, the Developer Edition of SQL Server 2016 and 2014 are now completely free! There is no restriction on features, capabilities or how long you can use them! Read on to find out how to download free SQL Server 2016 Developer Edition and other goodies.
In these Developer Editions, the databases do not have to be smaller than X GB, the feature Y will not be disabled, the time is not restricted to Z days (i.e. 180 days) and you don’t have to pay any $ Dollars. These Developer Editions have all the features of the Enterprise Edition, but should not be used for Production.
To download the Developer Edition, all you need is a free membership to the Visual Studio Dev Essentials and then go to the following URL to download the installation file.
Download Free SQL Server 2014 and 2016 Developer Edition
If you don’t plan on downloading the full install of SQL Server yet, you can still get the latest tools.
SSMS is a free client tool for general SQL Server management and TSQL development. It is compatible with prior versions of SQL Server too.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/mt238290.aspx
SSDT is a free development tool that is a subset of Visual Studio IDE. It is focused on database and business intelligence related development i.e. TSQL, SSIS, SSRS and SSAS.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt204009.aspx
While at your downloading spree, get the final version of the free MS Press eBook that gives an overview of the latest features in the SQL Server 2016 version.
Authors: Stacia Varga (t), Denny Cherry (t), Joseph D’Antoni (t)
Pages: 215
ISBN: 978-1-5093-0195-9
https://info.microsoft.com/Introducing-SQL-Server-2016-eBook.html
Although the title says that it is an introductory book, it is certainly not a beginner’s level text. In its nine chapters, it introduces the new features of SQL Server 2016. So it will be more useful if you have already worked with SQL Server for a while and are aware of features (or possibilities for enhancements) in the previous versions.
Microsoft is releasing its Developer Editions of SQL Server 2014 and 2016 for free!
Developer Edition is the same as the Enterprise Edition but it is licensed for development and testing purposes only.
The Developer license for the previous versions (2008 R2, 2012) used to go for about $50 and up. Another option was to download the fully functional edition valid for 180-days and later buy a licence.
More information about Microsoft’s new approach to developer licensing is at our Facebook post –
Microsoft TechNet Gallery is a treasure trove of scripts that can save you a lot of coding time or sometimes introduce creative ways of solving a challenge.
I came across this collection of scripts that will show you the top 25 inefficient query plans (in XML format) sorted by CPU, IO, recompiles, execution counts etc.
Download: http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Find-inefficient-query-88f4611f
I wrote earlier about my naming conventions for SSIS variables that let me quickly figure out the source of the variable value very easily. This post continues on to the prefix-based naming conventions I use (or plan to use) for the 120+ components in SSIS packages.
While looking around online for SSIS component naming conventions, most of the suggestions are based on Jamie Thompson’s (Blog | @JamieT) post SSIS: Suggested Best Practices and naming conventions. He has tried to limit the prefixes to 3 or 4 characters and included most of the frequently used components. Using the prefixes as described in his post has helped me a lot in the maintenance phase of a package when my memory has faded about the functionality and the workflow. Some more motivation to adopt a naming convention can be found in 31-days of SSIS series by Jason Strate (Blog | @StrateSQL).
My goal was to make an exhaustive list of components with their prefixes so that –
I created an Excel sheet of all the components (more than 120) that I found listed in MSDN, i.e. containers, connection managers, sources, destinations, tasks, and transformations. My prefixes are more elaborate than Jamie’s for the reasons mentioned above, but that is just my preference. You can use the Excel as a template for you organization and modify the prefixes to you liking.
The following is an example of one section from the Excel.
Download: Get the full Excel workbook at the TechNet Galleries
Example –
I work long hours looking at computer monitor(s). On certain days, the eye-strain used to get too heavy on my eyes and I couldn’t even look at people straight in the eye!
I needed some kind of reminder to pause, look away from the monitors, and maybe take a water break.
There are many programs that show cute pop-up reminders. But they are on the same screen that I’m trying to look away from in the first place! Also most of them are easy to ignore. I didn’t want a system lock screen because logging in frequently becomes an irritant after some time.
I’ve started using the good old Windows Task Scheduler along with the NirCmd utility by NirSoft. It is a simple EXE file and does not need any installation. While it can do a lot of useful stuff but I was interested in just turning the monitor on/off. Especially good if you work on laptops that don’t have dedicated on/off switch for monitors.
I extracted the 64-bit zip in my Downloads folder and created a simple batch file with the following commands –
CD "C:UsersAalam.RangiDownloadsnircmd-x64"
nircmd.exe speak text "Turning monitor Off in 5 seconds"
timeout 5
nircmd.exe monitor off
timeout 5
nircmd.exe speak text "Turning monitor on in 30 seconds"
timeout 30
nircmd.exe monitor on
Yes, it speaks too! Then I opened the Windows Task Scheduler and scheduled the batch file as a 30 minute job.
There you go! It turns off my monitor every 30 minutes for 30 seconds. I get up from my chair for a mini stretch, take a gulp of water, look at the farthest end of the room or maybe out of the window, while the monitor turns back on.
Now there could be some folks whose workplace enterprise policy won’t let them download an EXE file from Internet. You could use a screensaver instead. E.g. the following line in the batch file will trigger the Mystify screensaver. A reminder enough for the break. Also, if it is just going to be a single command then maybe you don’t even need a batch file. You can put this command in the scheduled task by itself.
@START /WAIT /MIN %windir%system32mystify.scr -s
The downside is that this job keeps running even after I’ve left my office. Might startle the janitor 🙂
Eric Ligman at Microsoft has posted a series of blogs posts with an awesome collection of free ebooks (in multiple formats) related to Microsoft technologies like SQL Server, Azure, SharePoint etc.
I’m posting the links to the original posts with full list of books here.
A TechNet wiki page with links to more books. There could be overlaps with the previous links.
Another post with links of free Microsoft Office products training –
Requirement:
You need to delete and then insert data into tables which have parent-child relationships defined via primary and foreign keys. The delete and insert commands have to be executed in proper sequence.
The sequence for DELETE is Child-before-Parent.
The sequence for INSERT is Parent-before-Child.
I created a quick script in response to a forum post. The script is not the best out there because –
I’m sharing it for my future reference and probably others with smaller number of tables would find it useful too.
Download script at –
http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Parent-Child-Table-45fa5268
Further reference:
For a faster (but not with all these output columns) script, look at Erland Sommarskog’s response in the forum thread.
Script output would look like the example below –
If you indulge in Microsoft MSDN Forums (social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums) frequently then you might have had a thought about using a News reader.
The MSDN Forums Help Wiki mentions an “NNTP bridge” by Microsoft to configure one’s News reader but that project seems to have been off the shelf since the release of the new MSDN forums. It seems there is no other information about the future availability of a new bridge which would be compatible with the current forums.
There is a CodePlex community project at Community Forums NNTP Bridge that provides the functionality to provide this bridge. Download the zip file (approx 1 MB). Extract and run the setup.exe to install. Its documentation is quite explanatory but I’d like to restate and add to it –
Other links:
Windows Live Mail Configuration:
I had a recent project where we planned to re-factor an existing application’s .Net and TSQL code. I wanted to find the complexity of the stored procedures and arrive at an estimate of the effort required to review all them. I had in mind that something like number of lines of code, number of dependencies and parameters in the stored procedure would give a good starting point to create such an estimate.
I patched together a script that produced a report similar to the example below. I used that output and put in some more formulas to assign a complexity level (simple, medium or complex) and the approximate number of minutes required to review that procedure. I have not included those calculations here because they depend entirely on the estimator’s perception of complexity and the developer’s skill level.
The number of lines of code is a subjective metric here because it depends on the developer’s coding style and use of whitespace. Even then, it could be a useful reference point.
In case this seems useful then the script to create that report is available for download at Technet.
Download and rate the script at: http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Calculate-TSQL-Stored-831b683a
CHANGE HISTORY:
2012/Dec/01 – Version 1
2013/Feb/15 – Version 1.1 Added the CASE statement for complexity.
2014/Apr/29 – Version 1.2 Added Database and Schema name to the report.
Included objects that may not be refering to other objects.
Included views, functions and triggers.
Please feel free to share you feedback in the comments.