Announcing SQL Server Management Studio - March 2016 Release

Today, we are very pleased to announce the latest preview of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). This release includes all updates included in the February release, and features improvements in the AlwaysEncrypted wizard to support alias data types for encryption, an improvement in the SSMS web installer to allow navigation using Keyboard keys, improvements and bug fixes in the SSMS Backup wizard, and many more.

Get it here: Download SSMS March 2016 Preview

  • The version number for the latest preview is 13.0.12500.29

New in this release

  1. Improvement in the SSMS web installer to allow navigation using keyboard keys.
  2. Improvement in the Always Encrypted wizard dialog to support alias data types for encryption.
  3. Bug Fix for Microsoft Connect item #2333670 :  to update the AlwaysOn "New Availability Group" wizard in SSMS to display the correct number of maximum automatic failover targets.
  4. Bug Fix for Microsoft Connect item #2181548: to fix errors affecting installation using SSMS web installer.
  5. Improvements and bug fixes in the Backup wizard to allow multiple custom backup names for striped backups, and to display the appropriate backup file name if a new name is entered after a storage credential is selected.

Please visit the SSMS download page for additional details including Microsoft connect IDs for issues that were fixed.

Known Issues

The full list of known issues is available in Release notes available here.

Contact us

If you have any questions or feedback, please visit our forum or Microsoft Connect page. We are fully committed to improve the SSMS experience and look forward to hearing from you!