Please note -- in this topic the phrase "You can download SSMSE with Tools" is slightly incorrect. The phrase "with tools" should be removed from that sentence because the link in that section points to the stand-alone download of SSMSE. If you want to download a version of the SQL Server Express package together with the management tools, you can get that from:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7522a683-4cb2-454e-b908-e805e9bd4e28&DisplayLang=en

Tai Yee

Microsoft

I've just wasted the best part of the day - first I downloaded management studio 2005 only to find out it does not work with 2008 - then came here read the comments followed the link provided which *does not* point to the correct version of management studio. Only from the other posters comments can I deduce that it is not available and therefore I think this page should state clearly that it is not yet available and offer alternative solutions. Does this mean I have to acutally uninstall SQL server express 2008 and install 2005 just so that I can use managemet studio? What a joke!

[Tai Yee - MSFT] Sorry for the bad experience you had. As I mentioned in the first Comment to this topic above, the correct download for SQL Server 2008 with Management Studio is at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7522a683-4cb2-454e-b908-e805e9bd4e28&DisplayLang=en .

[sunsong] Very kind of you to put in a link, however, it is NOT a link to SQL Server 2008 with Management Studio. I have searched extensively and cannot find any link to an Express edition of Management Studio that will work with Server Express 2008. The 2005 version of Management Studio does not work with Server Express 2008.

[sunsong] Finally found it. Management Studio is indeed included with the Link above (i.e. the "with Tools" version). However, you have to run the install twice and the second time go into "Install" and choose the option to add features. You must uninstall your 2005 version of Management Studio Express first. See this link http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlexpress/archive/2008/08/24/faq-switching-between-sql-server-2008-edtions.aspx

[Tai Yee - MSFT] Thank you for following up and sharing your experience. This will be helpful to others who run into this problem.

Remove sql server 2005 compact edition before installing sql server 2008 express to get management studio installed.

The 2008 version of the Management Studio is not a stand alone installation and can only be installed as part of the SQL Server 2008 Express with Tools or Advanced installation.

Like many others, I spent countless hours trying to figure out how to install the Management Studio for SQL Server 2008 Express - Advanced installation (same should apply to the w/ Tools version). What happened in my case was that I installed Visual Studio 2008 Express and during that process a stripped down "Instance" of SQL Server 2008 was installed that did not include the Management Studio. Through much pain and torture I learned that the Management Studio can only be installed during installation of the first instance. To delete that first instance, you must go to "Add or Remove Programs" and remove "Microsoft SQL Server 2008". The removal process will only remove one instance at a time and if you have installed more than one instance you need to keep going until all instances have been removed and the application completely disappears from the Add or Remove Programs" dialog. Note:You do not need to uninstall any of the other SQL Server 2008 applications that also appear in the "Add or Remove Programs" dialog. Then go back through the install process as follows: Double click on SQLEXPRADV_x86_ENU.exe to load the SQL Server Installation Center and then go to Installation > New SQL Server stand-alone installation. Then proceed through all of the installation steps until you get to “Feature Selection” and click on “Select All” to toggle on all of the Shared Features, which should include Management Tools - Basic.Continue the process from there and you should be good to go. Hopefully this will help others to avoid much of the pain that many of us have already experienced.

[Tai Yee - MSFT] In regards to the opening statement "The 2008 version of the Management Studio is not a stand alone installation and can only be installed as part of the SQL Server 2008 Express with Tools or Advanced installation." -- that was true in the past but it is no longer true. A stand-alone version of SQL Server 2008 Management Studio Express is now available, and linked from this topic. Here is the link again for reference: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=08e52ac2-1d62-45f6-9a4a-4b76a8564a2b&displaylang=en.

I installed the default standalone instance and foujnd the same as other people that the management studio was missing. To fix i simply re-ran the setup file, chose 'modify existing instance' then on the feature selection page under the 'shared' section there it is... I believe it is call management tools (basic).

You dont need to remove any instance you have created.

Hi,

in the meantime the SSMSE 2008 is downloadable standalone

https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=08e52ac2-1d62-45f6-9a4a-4b76a8564a2b&displayLang=en

mfg

Klaus Oberdalhoff

I can confirm needing to uninstall the instance if it was first installed by Visual Studio. After installing Visual Studio, when trying to add SSMSE by running SQL Express install with Tools (and also tried the Management Studio Express 2008 standalone install), the "Management Tools - Basic" selection is simply not available. I uninstalled "Microsoft SQL Server 2008" as recommended by Paradox1 and then was able to select the Management Tools during reinstallation using the SQL Express install w/ Tools.

I started at www.asp.net and installed silverlight cause they were pushing it so hard.
Then DL'd MS /net framework ver 3.5 sp1.
Then DL'd Vis web dev 2008 express edition sp1.
So far so good and the Vis Web Dev deal installs SQL 2008 express.

Not sure why i wouldn't want a GUI interface to manage the SQL Server? or why it isn't installed by default? Somebody at MS must think managing MSDE with OSQL back in the day was fun.

So i decide to DL the sql 2008 Express gui interface - SQLManagementStudio_x86_ENU.exe = 168MB.

but then found i had to have powershell (still don't know why). WindowsXP-KB926139-v2-x86-ENU.exe

but that required windows validation - WGAPluginInstall.exe. what a joke.

So know i have all this *** and a big bloated installer for the SQL Express Mgmt Studio.
And after waiting multiple times for it to "process the current operation" i get nothing.
I try to "Add features to an existing instance..." , do 'select all' on the features list and get told that "to continue one or more features must be selected."
Well Duh!

[tfl - 12 06 09] Hi - and thanks for your post. You should post questions like this to the MSDN Forums at http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn or the MSDN Newsgroups at 

  http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/. You are much more likely get a quicker response using the forums than through the Community Content. For specific help about:
Visual Studio  : http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?sel=usenet%3Dmicrosoft.public.vstudio%2C&
.NET Framework : http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?sel=usenet%3Dmicrosoft.public.dotnet.framework
All Public     : http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?sel=usenet%3Dmicrosoft.public%2C&

I'm having the EXACT same experience, it's like MSFT is trying to take the worst aspects from the linux/open source development world and add the bad parts to their system. Seriously WTF, the one thing MSFT had left was the simplicity and intuitiveness of their systems. It's quite obvious that somebody that loves spending their time configuring *** has thrown away the idea of simple intuitive automation in favor of manual configurations, yay. 

just confirming what others have experienced as well:

today, on Jun 26 2009, the link mentioned in the article
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=144346
leads to a the download page for"Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Management Studio Express".

Downloading this 170MB monster and invoking it opens the "SQL Server Installation" where you can choose "Add features to an existing instance". Fine. The list with features presented then does not contain any reference to the "Management Studio Express". The only thing to check there is the "SQL Client Connectivity SDK".

But after installing it, without surpize I don't have a SSMSE after going through the installation procedure.

This is really ridiculous!!!

So - without removing the already running SQL Server 2008 installation - how do I get SSMSE?

Where is the standalone SSMSE download?

[Tai Yee - MSFT] that is the correct place to download SSME. You may have had SQL Express already installed by Visual Studio, in which case you will need to remove it first. See the other Community Content items contributed to this topic above, in particular the ones titled "Trying to install Server Management Studio after first installing Visual Studio Product" and "You dont need to remove any instance you have created". Another good idea would be to read the Release Notes that are linked from the Instructions section of that download page. Here is the direct path to the Release Notes:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/9/e/49eeb41a-a769-4520-80d6-671b8ae2bd06/SQLServer2008ReleaseNotes.htm

6/30/2009

Someone needs to summarize the results of the previous postings on this page and put an authoritative stamp on some of the findings and declarations.

I myself am perplexed at the SSMSE dual offerings, although Klaus' post suggests a "broken out" standalone tool, there is nothing in the package's description that states exactly what it is... In fact if you compare the official description with the previous package for download available Feb 8, you will find nearly all the content and especially the critical content identical word for word... There is no suggestion what is different but it's clear that aside from the dates the package sizes are different and the package versions are identical.

Can it really be that the difference in package sizes might really be the SQL Engine plus numerous add-ons like client connectivity, full text searching and business analytics only amounts to 60mb?

And, is it also true that none of these packages includes SQL 2008 SP1 but if that is the case can the separate SP1 package be applied to any previous installed package without issue? The SP1 description implies it will install a new instance but does not mention it will successfully upgrade a previously installed instance.

Also, there are THREE versions of SQL 2008 Express listed on the main SQL Express Home Page, is the SSMESE package name implying that only the middle option(Tools) can be installed with SSMESE, anyone who wants the other features like Full Text Search and Business Analytics is out of luck?

Thoroughly puzzled at all the confusion,

Tony

I am also one of the unfortunate people who installed VS 2008 express. I downloaded SQL Server Express SP1 x64 (104 MB) and installed that but as some people above have commented it does not give an option to install SSMSE. Then I downloaded the installed from SSMSE x64 (176 MB). When installing an instance using that I do get an option to install 'Management Tools' however this installed is not SP1 and Windows 7 x64 complains about compatibility issues. Now which combination of installers should I use to get SQL server 2008 express SP1 with SSMSE which are compatible with Windows 7 x64?
EDIT: It seems that SQL Express with Advanced Services and SQL Express with Tools will not come as an SP1 package so to upgrade to SP1 the full SQL server SP1 has to be used. Source - http://blogs.msdn.com/petersad/archive/2009/02/25/servicing-sql-server-2008-express.aspx

You really CAN get the stand-alone SSMSE installer at http://www.microsoft.com/express/sql/download/ Its about 35mb. You'll see a table of downloads; SSMSE is in the leftmost column. (10 sept 09)

What a mess. The previous post mentions a 35mb download. Indeed that is the amount mentioned on the web page, but when I click this takes me to the "Web Installer", which finally causes a 168mb download to begin claiming to be SQL Server 2008 Management Studio Express. I will post back the results of this massive download. The amount of misinformation on this site is bad. I agree with one post - someone with authority and a reputation on the line needs to step in and EXPLAIN how to install SQL Server Management Console. This has been a real waste of time for me.

Like everyone else posting here, I have gone through this entire cycle and it is hugely frustrating. All I really want is a standalone replacement for the Enterprise Manager. I did install the standalone SQL SERVER 2008 EXPRESS SP1 after having gone through several interations using the Web Platform Installer installs and uninstalls - but still no SSMSE to be found. Furthermore, even the videos demonstrating installation options no longer accurate. I would have thought that MS would be highly motivated to make this a whole lot easier. There are lots of alternatives out there that seem to be much less problematic to get up and running.

even though that is not what you're doing. If you select "Add features to an existing instance of SQL Server 2008" it won't install, even though that IS what you're doing. What a bad UI.

Here's where I found the answer:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sqlexpress/thread/ea708ab0-0253-4f95-8448-00bd31a22a65

For the Managment Studio Express Tools only, this link does work:
https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=08e52ac2-1d62-45f6-9a4a-4b76a8564a2b&displaylang=en

BUT it doesn't look like it when you first run it. You must select new instance which will give you the option to install the tools. It won't actually install an instance.

No where in the initial running of the setup does it say, Tools Only or something like that. Nice hack job on the installer Microsoft.

As usual you have taken something that was working well (SQL 2005 Express, 3 downloads, very clearly identified), and had NO need to be this complex and managed to completely confuse everyone that is using it and make it a general PITA. Hopefully you get this worked out and then next version is a little easier to figure out when all I'm trying to do is to install it.

Thanks to all the above posters, I have completed the task at hand. Here are step by step instructions for how I did it.

Make sure the computer has plenty of free hard drive space
Install .NET 3.5
Install Windows Installer 4.5
Install Windows PowerShell, available here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/management/powershell/download.mspx

Install SQL Server 2008 Express. I used the executable en_sql_server_2008_express_sp1_x86.exe, downloaded from

http://www.microsoft.com/downLoads/details.aspx?familyid=01AF61E6-2F63-4291-BCAD-FD500F6027FF&displaylang=en.

Note: Be aware that the installer interface is extremely complex and can be confusing. Just take your time with it.
Note: I got a cryptic error during the installation, and to fix it I had to uncompress the C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server directory.

Install SQL Management Studio. I used the executable SQLManagementStudio_x86_ENU.exe, downloaded from

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=08E52AC2-1D62-45F6-9A4A-4B76A8564A2B&displaylang=en

Important note: When the installer asks if this is a new install or an update of a previous install, specify a new install, even though this is not really true.
When the installer presents the list of available features, select "Management Tools - Basic" and complete the installation

Now I have a viable SSE 2008 SP1 install on a VM that I can replicate anytime I need to, so with any luck I never have to do this again.