The WMI provider objects are wrapped by SMO. Perhaps an issue w/ the installation of SSMS? What build are you running? Take a look at http://blogs.msdn.com/echarran/archive/2006/01/03/509061.aspx

Have you looked at Idera's SQLSafe freeware editon?

http://www.idera.com/Products/SQLsafefree/Default.aspx

Are you getting the access denied error message when attempting to create the alias? i.e.

Can you telnet to the server? i.e. Start -> Run -> Cmd -> telnet MYSERVERNAME 1433

Are you just trying to connect to a remote instance of SQL server on a different port? If so, create an alias for the server in the SQL Server configuration...

SQL Server considers the number of sockets, regardless of the number of cores on the processor. In your case, standard will see all 8 logical processors and you only have...

SQL server licensing is per socket - i.e. 2 sockets, 2 cores you only have to license the 2 sockets. SQL server will make use of all (4) logical CPU(s)....

Have you looked at the schema changes history report available in SSMS? (right-click the server and/or database, select reports, schema changes history report).

CLR is another viable option. Check out David Ziffer's article -

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/SS2K5+-+CLR+Integration/creatingagenericaudittriggerwithsql2005clr/2502/%5B/url%5D

From the horse's mouth 😀

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/2008/prodinfo/newfeatures.mspx

Don Schlichting also wrote a few good articles on some of the new features available in 2008.

http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mssql/article.php/3691821

http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mssql/article.php/3697056

http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mssql/article.php/3702381

Andy, on the server in question - can you post the results of the following query -

select * from sys.endpoints

Hi Andy, what version of SQL Server are you running? Express has remote connections disabled by default. This can be enabled in the surface area configuration tool. Can you telnet...

NP - Just a side note, if you happen to have access to a copy of Host Integration Server you can install this OLE DB provider as well irregardless of...

Have you tried the Microsoft OLEDB Provider for DB2 available in the feature pack as opposed to IBM's client access driver?

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=d09c1d60-a13c-4479-9b91-9e8b9d835cdc&displaylang=en

It is - just reference the linked server name. i.e.

create synonym for SchemaName.ObjectName for OracleLinkedServerName..OracleSchemaName.OracleObjectName