Was curious so just tried it myself but no dice. sys.configurations uses a rowset and a system view that eventually point back to the real master.

No problem. One tweak for clarity. My query should have qualified the table with the new name of master, not master again:

SELECT *

FROM new_name_of_master.sys.configurations

WHERE ...

Never tried it, but you could restore a backup of master with a different name to a running instance and issue:

SELECT *

FROM master.sys.configurations

WHERE name...

Depending on the driver the instance name can take precedence over the port, or vice-versa. It is not consistent across drivers. I would recommend against...

Nice. That is a tricky example that might slip by even a good...

After uninstalling the 2005 default instance you can simply change the port on which the 2008 R2 instance listens to 1433 and it will begin appearing on the network as...

@Gail, In thinking about this a little more, I think the example I gave is just a roundabout way of asking for TOP 1 without an ORDER BY, which I...

Found one. I was never under the impression that adding or changing an index was completely harmless for various other reasons but not for this particular one. I am still...

I realized that nuance after I posted.

Looking to mock-up an example...

GilaMonster (3/1/2013)

I can probably produce...

Sounds like a bug in SMO.

sqldba_newbie (3/1/2013)

Jeff Moden (3/1/2013)

opc.three (3/1/2013)

I think we covered the OP's question about...

What times were they started? Does it look random or like a scheduled job? i.e. on the minute or hour every time? I might start asking around. Maybe someone logged...

Jeff Moden (3/1/2013)

opc.three (3/1/2013)

I think we covered the OP's question about SELECT...

I am concerned that you are asking for help with such a critical item on a free public forum on behalf of a client. If I were you, and you...