After installing Microsoft SQL Server, you can start using it.

Because Microsoft SQL Server works as a service to the operating system, in order to use it, you must make sure its service has started. To check it (on Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Server 3008) you can open Control Panel and the Administrative Tools. In the Administrative Tools window, you can open the Services. In the Services window, check the status of the SQL Server (MSSQLSERVER) item:

If the MSSQLSERVER service is stopped, you must start it. To do this, you can right-click it and click Start. If it fails to start, check the account with which you logged in:

If you are using Microsoft Windows XP Professional and you logged in as Administrator but did not provide a password, you should open Control Panel, access User Accounts, open the Administrator account, and create a password for it
If you are using a server (Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or Microsoft Windows Server 2008), make sure you logged in with an account that can start a service
Once the service has started, it should be labeled Started:

Opening Microsoft SQL Server
1.To launch Microsoft SQL Server, you can click Start -> (All) Programs -> Microsoft SQL Server 2008 -> SQL Server Management Studio

When it starts, it would present a dialog box that expects you to log in.
Practical Learning: Launching Microsoft SQL Server
To launch Microsoft SQL Server, click Start -> (All) Programs -> Microsoft SQL Server 2008 -> SQL Server Management Studio. A splash screen will appear:

2.On the Connect to Server dialog box, click Cancel
The Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
There are many tools you will use in Microsoft SQL server. One of them is called Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. To access it, you can click Start -> (All) Programs -> Microsoft SQL Server 2008 -> SQL Server Management Studio. A dialog box would come up but you can click Cancel on it:

The top section of the SQL Server Management Studio displays the classic title bar of a regular window, with an icon on the left, followed by the title of the application, and the system buttons on the right side.
The Main Menu
Under the title bar, the menu bar displays categories of menus that you will use to perform the various necessary operations.
The Standard Toolbar
The Standard toolbar displays under the main menu:

The Standard toolbar is just one of the available ones. Eventually, when you perform an action that would benefit from another toolbar, the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio would display that toolbar. Still, if you want to show any toolbar, you can right-click any menu item on the main menu or any button on a toolbar. A menu would come up:

The Object Explorer
The left side of the interface displays, by default, the Object Explorer window, with its title bar labeled Object Explorer. If you don't see it, on the main menu, you can click View -> Object Explorer.

The Object Explorer is a dockable window, meaning you can move it from the left side to another side on the interface. To do this, you can click and drag its title bar to a location of your choice. When you start dragging, small boxes that represent the possible placeholders would come up:

You can drag and drop to one of those placeholders.

The Object Explorer is also floatable, which means you can place it somewhere in the middle of the interface:

To place the window back to its previous position, you can double-click its title bar. The window can also be tabbed. This means that the window can be positioned either vertically or horizontally.

At any time, if you do not want the Object Explorer, you can close or hide it. To close the Object Explorer, click its close button.

On the right side of the Object Explorer title, there are three buttons. If you click the first button that points down, a menu would appear:

The menu allows you to specify whether you want the window to be floated, docked, or tabbed.

The right side of the window is made of an empty window. This area will be used to display either the contents of what is selected in the Object Explorer, or to show a result of some operation. As you will see later on, many other windows will occupy the right section but they will share the same area. To make each known it will be represented with a tab and the tab shows the name (or caption) of a window.
Connection to a Server
Using Connect to Server
In order to do anything significant in Microsoft SQL Server, you will have to log in to a server. If you start Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio from the Start button, the Connect To Server dialog box would come up. If you had started from the Start button but clicked Cancel, to connect to a server:

On the main menu, click File -> Connect Object Explorer
On the Standard toolbar, you can click the New Query button
On the Object Explorer, you can click the arrow of the Connect button and click one of the options, such as Database Engine...

Any of these actions would display the Connect to Server dialog box:

From there, select the name of the server and the type of authentication to use. If you choose the Windows Authentication, you can just click Connect. Otherwise, in the Authentication combo box, you can select SQL Server Authentication. In this case, you must provide a username and a password:

Once you are ready, click Connect. If you log in successfully, the Object Explorer would appear with a few nodes:

After using Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio, you can close it. To do this:

Click the icon on the left side of Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio and click Close
On the right side of the title bar, click the system Close button
On the main menu, click File -> Exit
Press Alt, F, X
Using the Command Prompt
Besides the SQL Server Management Studio, you can also work on Microsoft SQL Server from the DOS command prompt. This is done using an application or command named SQLCMD.EXE. To use it, open the Command Prompt, type SQLCMD (case-insensitive) and press Enter.

After using Microsoft SQL Server from the command prompt, to close it, type Quit (case-insensitive) and press Enter. To close the DOS window:

Type Exit (case-insensitive) and press Enter
Click the system Close button .
Using the Windows PowerShell
When Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is installed, it also installs the Windows PowerShell 1.0, which is a new command-based application from Microsoft. Besides the SQL Server Management Studio and the Command Prompt, you can use PowerShell to create and manage databases. To access it, you can click Start -> (All) Programs -> Windows PowerShell 1.0 -> Windows PowerShell. A DOS window would display:

Notice that the title bar displays Windows PowerShell.

To access Microsoft SQL Server from PowerShell, type SQLCMD and press Enter:

Notice that, this time, the title bar displays SQLCMD, which indicates that the application is ready to receive commands that relate to Microsoft SQL Server.

After using the PowerShell, to exit from Microsoft SQL Server, type Quit (case-insensitive) and press Enter:

To close PowerShell and the DOS window, you can:

Type Exit (case-insensitive) and press Enter
Click the system Close button .
Using the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio

The Object Explorer displays a list of items as a tree-style. One of the most regularly used items will be the name of the server you are using. If you are just starting to learn database development or you are a junior database developer, you may use or see only one server. In some cases, you may be dealing with many. Regardless, you should always know what server you are currently connecting to. This is easy to check with the first node of the Object Explorer. In the following example, the server is named Central:

The name of the server is followed by parentheses.

In the previous section, we saw that, to establish a connection to a server, you must authenticate yourself. In some cases you may use the same account over and over again. In some other cases you may have different accounts that you use for different scenarios, such as one account for database development, one account for database management, and/or one account for database testing. Some operations cannot be performed by some accounts. When performing some operations, you should always know what account you are using. You can check this in the parentheses of the server name. In the following connection, an account called Administrator is currently logged in to a server named Central:

Object Explorer Details
We saw that, by default, the right area of Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio displays an empty gray window. When you select something in the Object Explorer, you can use that right area to display more detailed information about the select item. To do this, on the main menu, you can click View -> Object Explorer Details. The main are on the right side would then be filled with information:

Probably the most regular node you will be interested in, is labeled Databases. This node holds the names of databases on the server you are connected to. Also, from that node, you can perform almost any necessary operation of a database. To see most of the regularly available actions, you can expand the Databases node and some of its children. You can then right-click either Databases or one of its child nodes. For example, to start PowerShell, you can right-click the Databases node or the server name and click PowerShell:

When the PowerShell comes up, what it displays depends on what you had right-clicked.
Introduction to Code
Although you will perform many of your database operations visually, some other operations will require that you write code. To assist with with this, Microsoft SQL Server provides a code editor and various code templates.

To open the editor:

On the main menu, you can click File -> New -> Query With Current Connection
On the Standard toolbar, click the New Query button
In the Object Explorer, right-click the name of the server and click New Query
This would create a new window and position it on the right side of the interface. Whether you have already written code or not, you can save the document of the code editor at any time. To save it:

You can press Ctrl + S
On the main menu, you can click File -> Save SQLQueryX.sql...
On the Standard toolbar, you can click the Save button
You will be required to provide a name for the file. After saving the file, its name would appear on the tab of the document.
The Structured Query Language
After establishing a connection, you can take actions, such as creating a database and/or manipulating data. To provide the ability to create and manipulate a database, you use data manipulation language (DML). There are many of them on the market. The Structured Query Language, known as SQL, is a DML used on various computer systems to create and manage databases.

SQL can be pronounced Sequel or S. Q. L. In our lessons, we will consider the Sequel pronunciation. For this reason, the abbreviation will always be considered as a word, which would result in “A SQL statement” instead of "An SQL statement". Also, we will regularly write, “The SQL” instead of “The SQL language, as the L already represents Language.
Like other non-platform specific languages such as C/C++, Pascal, or Java, the SQL you learn can be applied to various database systems. To adapt the SQL to Microsoft SQL Server, the company developed Transact-SQL as Microsoft's implementation of SQL. Transact-SQL is the language used internally by Microsoft SQL Server and MSDE. Although SQL Server highly adheres to the SQL standards, it has some internal details that may not be applied to other database systems like MySQL, Oracle, or even Microsoft Access, etc; although they too fairly conform to the standard.

The SQL we will learn and use here is Transact-SQL. In other words, we will assume that you are using Microsoft SQL Server as your platform for learning about databases. This means that, unless specified otherwise, most of the time, on this site, the word SQL refers to Transact-SQL or the way the language is implemented in Microsoft SQL Server.
The SQL Interpreter
As a computer language, the SQL is used to give instructions to an internal program called an interpreter. As we will learn in various sections, you must make sure you give precise instructions. SQL is not case-sensitive. This means that CREATE, create, and Create mean the same thing. It is a tradition to write SQL's own words in uppercase. This helps to distinguish SQL instructions with the words you use for your database.

As we will learn in this and the other remaining lessons of this site, you use SQL by writing statements. To help you with this, Microsoft SQL Server provides a window, also referred to as the Query Window, that you can use to write your SQL code. To access it, on the left side of the window, you can right-click the name of the server and click New Query. In the same way, you can open as many instances as the New Query as you want.

When the Query window comes up, it display a blank child window in which you can write your code. The code you write is a document and it can be saved as a file. The file would have the extension .sql. Every time you open a new query, it is represented with a tab. To switch from one code part to another, you can click its tab. To dismiss an instance of the query, first access it (by clicking its tab), then, on the right side, click the close button . If you had written code in the query window, when you close it, you would be asked to save your code. If you want to preserve your code, then save it. If you had already executed the code in the window (we will learn how to write and execute SQL code), you don't have to save the contents of the window.
Executing a Statement
In the next sections and lessons, we will learn various techniques of creating SQL statements with code. By default, when a new query window appears, it is made of a wide white area where you write your statements:

After writing a statement, you can execute it, either to make it active or simply to test it. To execute a statement:

You can press F5
On the main menu, you can click Query -> Execute
On the SQL Editor toolbar, you can click the Execute button
You can right-click somewhere in the code editor and click Execute
When you execute code, code editor becomes divided into two horizontal sections:

Also, when you execute code, the interpreter would first analyze it. If there is an error, it would display one or more red lines of text in its bottom section. Here is an example:

If there is no error in the code, what happens when you execute a statement depends on the code and the type of statement.
Accessories for SQL Code Writing
Comments
A comment is text that the SQL interpreter would not consider as code. As such, a comment is written any way you like. What ever it is made of would not be read. Transact-SQL supports two types of comments. The style of comment that starts with /* and ends with */ can be used. To apply it, start a line with /*, include any kind of text you like, on as many lines as you want. To close the commented section, type */. Here is an example of a line of comment:
/* First find out if the database we want to create exists already */

A comment can also be spread on more than one line, like a paragraph. Here is an example:
/* First find out if the MotorVehicleDivision database we
want to create exists already.
If that database exists, we don't want it anymore. So,
delete it from the system. */
Transact-SQL also supports the double-dash comment. This comment applies to only one line of text. To use it, start the line with --. Anything on the right side of -- is part of a comment and would not be considered as code. Here is an example:
-- =============================================
-- Database: MotorVehicleDivision
-- =============================================

/* First find out if the MotorVehicleDivision database we
want to create exists already.
If that database exists, we don't want it anymore. So,
delete it from the system. */

-- Now that the database is not in the system, create it


The End of a Statement
In SQL, after writing a statement, you can end it with a semi-colon. In fact, if you plan to use many statements in one block, you should end each with a semi-colon. When many statements are used, some of them must come after others.
Time to GO
To separate statements, that is, to indicate when a statement ends, you can use the GO keyword (in reality and based on SQL standards, it is the semi-colon that would be required, but the Microsoft SQL Server interpreter accepts GO as the end of a statement).
Lesson Summary
Concept Learned

Define Microsoft SQL Server
What are the different ways you can get Microsoft SQL Server?
What is the current version of Microsoft SQL Server?
How do you connect to the server?

Exercise: Using the Command Prompt

Check the Microsoft SQL Server help (Books Online) and look for the command that is used to connect to the server from the Command Prompt
Practice connecting to the server from the Command Prompt and from the Windows PowerShell
Exit the Command Prompt and the Windows PowerShell