Sql – Connect different Windows User in SQL Server Management Studio (2005 or later)

sqlsql-server-2008

Is there a way in SQL Server Management Studio 2005 (or later) to change the Windows Authentication user (as you could in SQL Server 2000 and older)?

This is the general connection properties dialog(note the greyed out UID/PWD when selecting Windows Auth):

dialog

FYI – One workaround is to use runas but I'm looking for a solution that will allow me to work with multiple Windows accounts across multiple servers (and across multiple domains).

Best Answer

While there's no way to connect to multiple servers as different users in a single instance of SSMS, what you're looking for is the following RUNAS syntax:

runas /netonly /user:domain\username program.exe

When you use the "/netonly" switch, you can log in using remote credentials on a domain that you're not currently a member of, even if there's no trust set up. It just tells runas that the credentials will be used for accessing remote resources - the application interacts with the local computer as the currently logged-in user, and interacts with remote computers as the user whose credentials you've given.

You'd still have to run multiple instances of SSMS, but at least you could connect as different windows users in each one.


For example: runas /netonly /user:domain\username ssms.exe

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