Clear List of Recent SQL Server Connection From SQL Server Management Studio

Print 2 min read

31 Aug 2022

Intermediate

136K Views

While working with SQL Server, we connect to the different-different data server. As a result of this SSMS has a list of diffrenet SQL Server which we have used. Sometimes this list create confusion and we can try to make the connection to SQL Server which does not exist or we does not have access to it. To resolve this issue, we should clear this server list from SSMS.

Clear recent connection list from SQL Server 2005

First of all make sure that the SSMS is closed. Now remove or rename the file "mru.dat" from the location "C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\Shell\mru.dat" or "C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\ShellSEM\mru.dat"

If you are not able to find the file "mru.dat" at above locations then search this file in system drive and remove or rename it.After removing or renaming, launch the SSMS and you will not see any of the most recently used servers in the list.

Clear recent connection list from SQL Server 2008 or 2008r2

First of all make sure that the SSMS is closed. Now remove or rename the file "mru.dat" from the location "C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Shell\SqlStudio.bin" or "C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\ShellSEM\SqlStudio.bin"

If you are not able to find the file "SqlStudio.bin" at above locations then search this file in system drive and remove or rename it.After removing or renaming, launch the SSMS and you will not see any of the most recently used servers in the list.

Note

Before removing above "mru.dat" or "SqlStudio.bin" file, please note down the exist or required SQL Server connections so that you can add these server on re-open of SSMS.

What do you think?

I hope you will enjoy these tricks while working with SQL Server. I would like to have feedback from my blog readers. Your valuable feedback, question, or comments about this article are always welcome.