Assuming that this was not a trick question, I believe that the correct answer is 'it depends'. You can set the status bar for the query window to display a color based on the instance that you are connected to, but in order for this to work, you must connect through the registered servers tree. If you connect through the File|Connect Objects explorer method, the color of the status bar will be the default. Also, if you connect through the registered servers tree and change your connection to another instance, the status bar for the query window will retain the color of the instance originally connected to.