SQL Management Studio won't open scripts on double-click

Question

I'm used to double-clicking *.sql script files to open them in SQL Server Management Studio. I recently upgraded to Win7, and now when I double-click a script file, SSMS opens with an empty environment. I can then use File/Open or File/Recent Files to open my script, but I would much prefer for it to just open whatever I double-clicked on like a normal application would.

Any ideas what's going on?

BTW when I double-click a script from the Solution Explorer in Visual Studio, it does open it automatically just like you would expect.

Answer 1

I had the same problem. I don't know what caused it, but I fixed it with a quick Registry hack.

1. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\sqlwb.sql.9.0\Shell\Open\Command
2. Edit the (Default) value
3. It should contain something like this: "c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE\ssms.exe" /dde
4. Add "%1" to the end
5. The final value will be something like this: "c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE\ssms.exe" /dde "%1"

Answer 2

In my case the registry key that needed fixing was HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.sql

The (Default) had been changed to sql_auto_file... and needed to be ssms.sql.12.0 (for SSMS 2014)... presumably ssms.sql.11.0 for SSMS 2012.

All the other stuff down in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ssms.sql.12.0 path, that most other solutions tend to refer to, was fine as is.