SQL Server Management Studio v21 Preview 1 is out and let’s give it a quick whirl. It’s installed with the Visual Studio installer. That doesn’t mean Visual Studio is installed or required – it’s not – it’s just that the SSMS team is leveraging the work that the VS folks have put in over the years.

After installing, you’re prompted to sign in to sync your SSMS settings across devices, but there’s a Skip link. I do wish there was a “skip this forever” link, but whatever:

If you log in with Github, there’s a rather spooky-looking list of permissions that SSMS gets:

I’m a little suspicious as to why SSMS needs all that. Insert joke about least-privileged-permissions here. Anyhoo, after SSMS starts, to enable dark mode, click Tools, Options, put theme in the search box, and under Environment, General, choose Dark in the Color Theme:

Presto! Dark mode:

Eagle-eyed readers will notice that is not exactly dark mode. Erin Stellato (the SSMS PM) asked y’all for patience as they gradually work through the screens, converting them to dark mode. Once you’re connected, things look better:

The thing over at the far right was in the old SSMS too, it was just disabled by default. It lets you navigate through long stored procedures easier. At the bottom right, there’s an “Add to Source Control” link, which doesn’t do anything for me despite being logged in with Github. I’m guessing I have to organize a project or something first – I’ll dig into that later.

Query plans are not in dark mode yet:

To get into source control, click Git, clone a repository. I’ll take the First Responder Kit for example:

And a few seconds later:

Emotional damage. Okay, maybe it’s because I just copy/pasted the URL straight from Github. I edited out the /tree/main part at the end of the URL, and the second time it appeared to go through, although the SSMS UI didn’t change other than now the title bar says ViewPickerAutoload:

Which is honestly awesome, because I loved the pickers, and anything that SSMS can do to help Mike, Danielle, and Frank load the truck, the better:

I’m just kidding, of course. Frank passed away a couple of months ago. If only he’d been alive to see the show grace the title bar of SQL Server Management Studio.

Look, the point is that SSMS v21 is still very, very much in preview. It will install side-by-side with the legacy version (ha ha ho ho), so you can use both. v21 doesn’t support Analysis Services, Integration Services, or maintenance plans, so if you rely on any of that, you’ll still need the old v20. There are also a list of known issues with the preview, and right now I’d say it’s still for us hard-core early adopters.