Free Tool: Try Out SQL Queries and Explore Databases with QueryExpress
As an independent consultant, I move from one client's computer to another. Because of that, I frequently find myself on computers where I need to browse a database but don't have a copy of SQL Server Management Studio installed. If you want a quick replacement for Management Studio, try QueryExpress. It's so small and downloads so quickly that you'll think it hasn't download at all. QueryExpress also requires no installation: just drop it on your desktop and double-click its icon to run it.
QueryExpress isn't a complete replacement for Management Studio by any means, but it gives me everything I need: a text window for entering SQL statements, a TreeView of all of the databases on the server (with their tables, stored procedures, and functions) and a GridView of any query results.
There's some stuff missing that I wish was there: QueryExpress won't scan for databases for you to connect to, so I have to know what my server and database engine names are; and the undo in the text window only goes back one step. But, to compensate for that, QueryExpress works with SQL Server, Oracle or any OLE DB compatible database.
If you want something more powerful that's still free, you can take a little longer and install Query ExPlus, which builds on Query Express.
Posted by Peter Vogel on 04/15/2013