SQL Server Management Studio v18.0 is now generally available and is the latest version that provides support for almost all feature areas on SQL Server 2008 through to 2019 preview.
If you have a preview of SSMS 18.0 installed, you will need to uninstall before you can install SSMS 18.0 GA. SSMS 18.0 will also not replace an older version of SSMS but will run side by side with it.
Release Highlights
Here is a brief list of is new in SSMS 18.0.
- Support for SQL Server 2019. SSMS 18.0 is the first release to be fully aware of SQL Server 2019 (compatLevel 150).
- SSMS 18.0 is based off the Visual Studio 2017 Isolated Shell.
- Smaller download size.
- Accessibility improvements.
- Ability to install to a custom folder.
- Requires .NET Framework 4.7.2 or greater.
- Support for High DPI (by default).
- Added integration for Azure Data Studio.
- Still no official support for Dark Mode. Please see my article on how to enable Dark Mode for SSMS.
- Database Diagrams has been removed. Seriously it’s gone! You will need to install a previous version of SSMS (like 17.8.1) to get this functionality.
Summary
Dark mode is still not available and remains a feature you have to manually enable. It’s also weird that they dropped support for the Database Diagramming tool without any warning or guidance to replace it. This was a gem of a tool inside of SSMS and was simple to use for visualizing database relationships, and documentation. You will need to rely on an older version of SSMS or use another tool. Other than that it looks like a great update to SSMS.
For more details on what’s new, bug fixes and deprecations, please take a look at the detailed release notes.
To get started download SSMS 18.0 (GA) now.
Enjoy!
The Flying Maverick 