Information on how to use SSMS more efficiently

Working in SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) can be daunting if you don't know your way around the interface.
In this Article, you will find all the helpful ways I work in SSMS in my daily productive environment.
Updated on: March 10, 2026 @ 7:44 PM

1. Allow for Pinned Opened Tabs«
2. Line Number«
3. Word Wrap«
4. Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation«
5. Change Default Location for Saving Query Results«
6. Toggle the Results window On/Off«
7. Comment and Uncomment out code«
8. ▼Updated for SSMS 22▼
9. Where is the Title Bar?«
10. Allow for Pinned Opened Tabs«
11. Line Number«
12. Word Wrap«
13. Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation«
14. Change Default Location for Saving Query Results«
15. Change Theme of UI«
16. Change Tab Location«
17. Locations of Documents«

Allow for Pinned Opened Tabs

Got to
[Options] | [Environment] | [Tabs and Windows]
Check this box.
[x]Show pinned tabs in a separate row
(This will allow you to Pin the most used window to the top of the Stack.
All other windows will be below the Pinned Tags.

Line Number

Got to
[Options] | [Text Editor] | [All Languages] | [General]
Check this box.
[x] [Line Numbers]

Word Wrap

[Options] | [Text Editor] | [All Languages] | [General]
Check this box.
[x] [Word Wrap]

Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation

[Options] | [Designers]
Uncheck this box.
[ ] [Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation (Uncheck)]

Change Default Location for Saving Query Results

[Options] | [Query Results]
Default location for saving query results: (Mine is stored here, and this location is backed up.)
[G:\SQL Server Data\Query Results]

Toggle the Results window On/Off

When working on your Query, you may not want the Results window open all the time.
To toggle off or on, click [Ctrl]+[R]

Comment and Uncomment out code

Sometimes you want to comment out sections of code, or maybe you wrote up information about what a certain thing does.
To comment out.
Click [Ctrl]+[K] then [Ctrl]+[C]
To Uncomment
Click [Ctrl]+[K] then [Ctrl]+[U]

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=>Updated for SSMS 22<=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Where is the Title Bar?

For some reason, they removed the Title Bar from the new SSMS 22.
I am not happy about this decision. I do not understand why they would do
Such a thing, but they did.
Maybe someone will design a plugin to give it back to those of us who want it.

Allow for Pinned Opened Tabs

Allow for Pinned Opened Tabs
Got to
[Tools] | [Options] | [All Settings] | [Environment] | [Tabs]
Under [Document Tabs]
Check the following options
[x] Insert new tabs to the right of existing tabs
[x] Show tabs in Multiple Rows
[x] Show pinned tabs in seperate row
Uncheck the following (If you want)
[ ] Toggle multiple rows with the mouse wheel

Line Numbers

[Tools] | [Options] | [All Settings] | [Languages] | [Defaults]
On my Default in SSMS 22

Word Wrap

[Tools] | [Options] | [All Settings] | [Languages] | [Defaults]
[x] Word Wrap(If it does not take, uncheck and check again.)

Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation

[Tools] | [Options] | [All Settings] | [Designers]
(The link will open the legacy Options dialog.)
Uncheck this box.
[ ] [Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation (Uncheck)]

Change Default Location for Saving Query Results

[Tools] | [Options] | [All Settings] | [Query Results] | [SQL Server]
Default location for saving query results: (Mine is stored here, and this location is backed up.)
[G:\SQL Server Data\Query Results]

Change Theme of UI

[Tools] | [Options] | [All Settings] | [Environment] | [Visual Experience]
[Color theme]: Choose your theme.
To really know if you will like the theme you have chosen.
Have the [Object Explorer] open, so you can see what it looks like through the different selected [Themes].
You might not like what you see. So choose one you like and are comfortable with.

Change Tab Location

[Tools] | [Options] | [All Settings] | [Environment] | [Tabs]
From the right section, under [Tabs]
[[Tab layout]:{Top} is Default.
You can change it at any time by clicking the Gear icon and selecting a different location from there.
(I am going to try it on the Left, as in Notepad++, I have Opened Documents on the left. So it would feel more natural to be the same.)

Floating Windows

[Tools] | [Options] | [All Settings] | [Environment] | [Windows] | [Floating Windows]
This is when you drag the Tab out of SSMS, and it creates its own [[Tooless Window].
From here, you can select if you want to have a [None] | [Tool Window] | [Documents and Tool Window]

Locations of Documents

[Tools] | [Options] | [All Settings] | [Projects and Solutions] | [Locations]
This is where you [Project location] | [User project template location] | [User item template location] are located.
I have the first one, [Project location] =[ A:\Projects\Microsoft\SSMS]
My A: Drive is where I store all my project files. This drive is constantly backed up. This saves them in case of a corrupt OS drive.