I managed to leave my laptop home when I went to work on Monday, and since it’s over an hour trip each way, I wasn’t too interested in another round trip to go get it. Luckily, I was able to use a spare at work, and I was able to access my documents and scripts on Google Drive. However, I had one major issue. SSMS wasn’t installed, and I didn’t have administrator rights to get it installed.
Luckily, I discovered Spoon.net, which provides containers (Here’s a post that explains application containers)to run instances of SSMS as well as SQL Express (Along with other database offerings). I just needed to install a Turbo browser extension and download the Turbo VM. Luckily, the install didn’t require administrator privileges. In no time, I had SSMS 2014 up and running, allowing me to connect to my work’s development SQL Server instances.
A free account allows you to run one container at a time. The SSMS container was pretty fast, and I’m very grateful that I was able to get through a day at work without my own laptop.