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How to Test a SQL Connection from any Windows Machine

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Here are some quick steps you can take to test a SQL Connection from any Windows machine:

Prerequisite: Make sure that you are viewing “File name extensions” through Windows Explorer (I’m logging a bug against Windows, for crying out loud there are a billion file extensions today).

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Hit Windows Key + D to show the desktop.

Right-click on the desktop and choose to create a new text document

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Rename the file to something that ends with the file extension UDL (this is the important part)

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After which, it should look like this:

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Double-click the file, which should open this window:

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There you go, you have this window which should be familiar. Enter the Server name, choose NT Integrated security if your server is using Windows logins or fill in the user name and password if it’s using SQL auth and optionally select a database then hit Test Connection at the bottom.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    June 11, 2014
    Its showing as Notepad only - tescon.UDL.txt. What should I change?

  • Anonymous
    June 11, 2014
    Fixed it. In the properties window, removed the .txt! Thanks for the nice tip, Dave.

  • Anonymous
    June 14, 2014
    Better have your file properties changed to SHOW EXTENSIONS.

  • Anonymous
    June 16, 2014
    Great post, thanks a lot Dave.

  • Anonymous
    June 16, 2014
    I've known about this for years. This is the best explanation of it which I have seen. Very good. BTW: I view not showing extensions as a security problem in windows. It makes it too easy for a baddie to fool you into putting malware on your system.

  • Anonymous
    June 22, 2014
    Thanks for pointing out the file extensions detail.  That's always the first thing I turn off when I setup a new machine.  I updated the post to include that as a prereq.

  • Anonymous
    September 10, 2014
    The comment has been removed