Hi all – this week we released SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 22 Preview 5! It’s a smaller preview with a set of fixes for GitHub Copilot, you can view the list in the release notes. For those of you working with GitHub Copilot in SSMS, we recommend updating to this preview. If you’re not using GitHub Copilot in SSMS and you haven’t seen how it easy it makes writing and editing T-SQL, please give it a try!
On the topic of updates…we’ve heard from folks that they love the modern installer, and they appreciate the frequent updates. We’ve also heard from folks who miss the single file install and/or think we’re updating too frequently. Change can be challenging, and this year has been transformative for SSMS. If you haven’t been following along, we put together a high-level recap:
Whew. What a year…and it’s not over!
We do not plan to have multiple major releases every year. Moving to Visual Studio 2022, and the Visual Studio 2026 (Preview) and SQL Server 2025 (Preview) announcements were factors that contributed to this year’s SSMS release schedule. We do not expect 2026 to have the same release cadence, and we’ll be working to find the right balance of delivering updates and new features without overwhelming organizations that prefer to stay on the latest build.
This leads into a reminder about our support policy. We state that we only support the latest release of SSMS. At its core, that means that we don’t backport fixes and updates to earlier versions. We only make changes in the current or preview major version. However, we don’t require you update immediately when a new release is available. We want to see everyone on the most recent release, but we know that not everyone can move quickly. Hopefully this clarifies any confusion folks may have.
Looking ahead, Makena and I are preparing for fall conferences, which are just around the corner. If you’re going to Ignite, you can catch Makena in the booth or at her SSMS session on Thursday at 3:30PM PST. If you’re going to PASS Summit, I’ll be covering GitHub Copilot in SSMS on Wednesday at 2:30PM PST, and will be in other sessions throughout the week. Please stop by to say hello and share your feedback, but if you can’t catch us in person, you can always share feedback on the site. Hope to see you soon!
Microsoft
