Month: December 2005

Surprise! User instances are a new capability of SQL Server 2005 (Express edition only) that are supposedly intended to allow non-admins to attach database files without requiring additional permissions. This actually works just fine and, at first glance, it probably strikes most folks as a lovely least-privilege accomodation. The unfortunate bit that might not be immediately obvious to the casual user is that this is accomplished by granting the connecting user sysadmin privilege over his user instance. This means that every connection to a user instance is a connection running as sysadmin. So… What’s so bad about connecting as sysadmin? … Continue reading Secure by de…what?

Once I actually started using my imports sorter add-in from the Larkware 2005 Developer Tool Programming Contest on a semi-regular basis, there were a few things that started irritating the heck out of me (and were presumably worse for everyone else). Finally found a bit of time to fix and test things, and a new version is available for download here, with updated documentation here. The new stuff includes: Option to not display the imports/using block after sorting. Option for duration to display the imports/using block after sorting, if display is enabled. Removal of whitespace from between imports/using directive lines. … Continue reading New version of Bordecal.ImportsSorter add-in available