My personal desktop computer at work is running Windows 2008 as the OS. When I open SQL Server Management Studio and select Connect > Database Engine, I can connect to other servers and then view their associated databases under Object Explorer.

But when I go to Connect > Database Engine under Object Explorer and apply the only instance available for server name for my local desktop computer, I get the message stating "... the server was not found or was not accessible." I have also tried "Local" and "Localhost" with the same error returned.

My best guess is that it will be easier to reinstall and set up a mixed mode authentication or apply Windows Authentication and grant access to my manager and a couple of others on my team... just in case.

Thanks.