Mini Post: Useful - Colour Coding Your SQL Instances/Queries

Hey everyone just a quick useful something that my colleague reminded me of.

So if you're like me, you may have many queries windows open but they could be from multiple instances of SQL Server, over multiple servers.

It may become a little confusing as to what query is being run on what instance.

Luckily SQL Server gives you the ability to colour code your query windows! You can assign a colour to a particular instance and then all queries that run against that instance will have a band of colour, indicating the instance. Lets take a look after the jump.


First open SQL Server Management Studio (2008 was used for this demo).

Click on that 'Options' button you never clicked on before.

Fig. 1: The 'Options' button. Yup.

Select the  'Use Custom Colour:' checkbox, then click the 'Select' button.

Fig. 2: Custom Colour Option. Select and let the possibilities flow.

Choose your colour, click 'Ok'. (I chose a manly reddish brown)

Fig. 3: Manly reddish... brown?

Now connect to you instance, and choose 'New Query'. You should see a band of you chosen colour at the bottom of your query. Repeat the above steps for each of your instances if you should so desire.

Fig. 4: Oh the colours.

Please also look at the very concise video from the ever awesome Pinal Dave (he has a lot of great stuff):
Colour Coding with Pinal Dave


DISCLAIMER: As stated, I’m not an expert so please, PLEASE feel free to politely correct or comment as you see fit. Your feedback is always welcomed. :-)