Microsoft SQL Server Data Engine (MSDE, also Microsoft Data Engine or Microsoft Desktop Engine) is a

relational database management system A relational database is a (most commonly digital) database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A system used to maintain relational databases is a relational database management system (RDBMS). Many relatio ...

developed by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

. It is a scaled-down version of

Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system developed by Microsoft. As a database server, it is a software product with the primary function of storing and retrieving data as requested by other software applications—which ma ...

7.0 or 2000 which is free for non-commercial use as well as certain limited commercial use. It was introduced at Microsoft TechEd in May 1999, and was included as part of

Microsoft Office Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketin ...

2000 Developer Edition. Its successor,

SQL Server Express Microsoft SQL Server Express is a version of Microsoft's Microsoft SQL Server, SQL Server relational database management system that is free to download, distribute and use. It comprises a database specifically targeted for Embedded system, embedd ...

was released in November 2005. Vendor support of MSDE ended on April 8, 2008.MSDE Upgrade

Overview

Microsoft Desktop Engine

MSDE was initially designed by (then) Microsoft Program Manager Jeff Alger and later implemented by Peter Byrne (core), Ronald Martinsen (core/setup), and Mike Maringas (setup). Alger and Martinsen are the co-inventors who hold the patent. The initial release of MSDE is called the "Microsoft Desktop Engine", which is based on SQL Server 7.0 and was positioned as an alternative to using the

Jet Database Engine The Access Database Engine (also Office Access Connectivity Engine or ACE and formerly Microsoft Jet Database Engine, ''Microsoft JET Engine'' or simply ''Jet'') is a database engine on which several Microsoft products have been built. The firs ...

used by

Microsoft Access Microsoft Access is a database management system (DBMS) from Microsoft that combines the relational Access Database Engine (ACE) with a graphical user interface and software-development tools (not to be confused with the old Microsoft Access w ...

with a focus on its ability to operate as a client–server application instead of requiring direct access to the file system which the Jet database resided on. Microsoft Access, the company's most popular database tool at the time, was expanded for its Office 2000 release to incorporate using Microsoft Desktop Engine as its back-end data store. This design was promoted by Microsoft as a solution for small workgroups that may eventually grow to require the full SQL Server product. This initial release of MSDE also included the Data Transformation Services Wizard, which provided the ability to use

OLE DB OLE DB (''Object Linking and Embedding, Database'', sometimes written as OLEDB or OLE-DB), an API designed by Microsoft, allows accessing data from a variety of sources in a uniform manner. The API provides a set of interfaces implemented using ...

and

ODBC In computing, Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is a standard application programming interface (API) for accessing database management systems (DBMS). The designers of ODBC aimed to make it independent of database systems and operating systems. An ...

data sources to transfer data between SQL Server 7.0 and MSDE. Supported operating systems at the time of its release included

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturin ...

Windows 98 Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. The second operating system in the 9x line, it is the successor to Windows 95, and was released to ...

, and

Windows NT 4.0 Windows NT 4.0 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 3.51, which was released to manufacturing on July 31, 1996, and then to retail ...

Service Pack 4, and was available for both

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introd ...

and

Alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , whic ...

architectures. Microsoft Data Engine can be found in Microsoft Access 2000 and other Microsoft products. MSDE toolkit for Visual Studio 6.0 can be found in October 2000 MSDN DVD ''Office Test Platform and Development Tools, English Pack'' as MSDE for Visual Studio.Table of Contents for October 2000 Monthly (DVD)
/ref>, or in October 2000 MSDN CD ''Office Test Platform and Development Tools'' (English Pack, European Pack I, Japanese Pack, Latin American pack).

Microsoft SQL Server Data Engine

It is based on SQL Server 2000. System requirement was changed to Windows 98. MSDE could be distributed with commercial products by registering with Microsoft — in most cases this distribution is also free of charge. SQL Server's server licence includes right to distribute MSDE. MSDE 2000 includes following resource kits: MSDE 2000 Deployment Resource Kit, MSDE 2000 Web Resource Kit. MSDE 2000 is also found in various products, such as Microsoft Office XP (Professional, Developer), Visual Studio .NET 2002-2003.

Features

Compared with the full server editions of SQL Server 7.0 and 2000, MSDE has some restrictions: a limit of 2 GB databases, and has a workload governor which reduces its speed when eight or more

concurrent Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to: Law * Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea'' * Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...

workloads are running. Microsoft has also stated that MSDE is not supported in Windows NT 6.0 operating systems such as

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

. MS SQL Server on Vista
No

graphical user interface The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...

management tools were released for MSDE, but SQL Server 2000's

Enterprise Manager Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to: Business and economics Brands and enterprises * Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company * Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company * Enterprise ...

(as well as later versions such as

SQL Server Management Studio Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) is a software application developed by Microsoft that is used for configuring, managing, and administering all components within Microsoft SQL Server. First launched with Microsoft SQL Server 2005, ...

) can be used to connect to it.

References

External links