The difference in how you create them, there is essentially none.  If you create a shared data source from the report builder window, it will create the exact same file...

I agree with Jeff here - you should be upgrading the SQL instance to something supported.  2012 is out of support.  I don't quite see this as going to spam,...

If you want to exclude, simply reverse your conditions.  For example, rather than "IN" use "NOT IN" or instead of "<" use ">=".  Or, alternately, toss some brackets around your...

I agree with Scott.  And to add to what he said - if you are currently using INT, I would MUCH rather switch to BIGINT before switching to CHAR(50).  I...

Where I work, the DBA patches the DBA software (SQL for example) and the IT team patches the OS.

So Windows updates are handled by IT and SQL patches are handled...

I am glad I could help.  I also want to make a note, which is in my signature, but I want to make it very clear:

As with all advice you...

I have not tested this, but I am 99.99999% confident you could create a temp table (CREATE TABLE #tmpTable(col1 datatype1, col2 datatype2, ...)) with the columns you expect then do...

I don't think SQL will be able to rank those the way you wanted them.  The reason why - if you are ordering it by "Rating", ID 8 has a...

One thing to keep in mind is if you are using SSIS, you will want the SSMS version that matches the SSIS database version.  For example, if you have SSIS...

If that error pops up when opening SSMS, I would try doing an uninstall and reinstall.  I would also check for free disk space and if you are on a...

We still have Windows XP computers that are "critical" to the company due to similar things.  In-house built software that is used for a product we are working to EOL...

My HOPE is that your application is throwing an error.  Since the application is known, you either have the source to it OR can contact the vendor to get them...

To add to your patching notes, it also falls under how much planned downtime can you get.  I have some systems that require maximum uptime and downtime on them is...

To add to what Phil said, my understanding is that ADS (Azure Data Studio) is more of a "development" tool and SSMS is more of a "management and administration" tool.

Deploying...

My opinion - VERY.  In general, what you are going to be doing the most of in SQL is NOT going to be CPU heavy operations but memory and disk...