Beginning Microsoft SQL Server 2008 ... - S3 Tech Training

Chapter 2: Tools of the Trade
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3. Select a login name of sa, which stands for System Administrator. Alternatively, you may log in
as a different user, as long as that user has system administrator privileges.
4. Enter the same password that was set when you installed SQL Server. On case-sensitive servers,
the login is also case sensitive, so make sure you enter it in lowercase.
If you’re connecting to a server that has been installed by someone else, or where you have changed the
default information, you need to provide login information that matches those changes. After you click
OK, you should see the Object Explorer window screen shown in Figure 2-8.
Figure 2-8
Be careful with the password for the sa user. This and any other user who is a sysadmin
is a super-user with full access to everything.
How It W orks
The Login dialog gathers all the information needed to create the connection. Once it has that, it assembles
the connection information into a single connection string and sends that to the server. The connection is
then either accepted or rejected and, if it is accepted, a connection handle is given to the Query window so
that the connection information can be used over and over again for many queries, as long as you do not
disconnect.