Versions

Disclaimer

By mentioning these products here, I am not endorsing any of them for any particular purpose. Nor do I guarantee that these versions are without bugs. What I am saying is that these versions are what I use, and what I recommend to clients, based on the best information available to me when I last updated this page.

Current versions of products

Product	Rating	Service Packs	Notes
Microsoft SQL Server 6.5	Stable	SP5a	A workhorse, but an aging standard
Microsoft SQL Server 7.0	Stable	SP4	Worth keeping, but 2000 is often faster.
Microsoft SQL Server 2000	Stable	SP3	Incremental improvement over 7.0. Biggest difference is the ability to run multiple independent instances. Performance characteristics seem to have changed.
UltraEdit 10.x			My editor of choice
Windows 95/98	Obsolete		Unstable and weak, even with latest versions.
Windows Me	Stable but aging		Inherits some stabilizing features from Windows2000, but it still can't compare with NT and 2000
Windows NT 4.0	Obsolete	SP6a	Worth keeping, but not worth installing.
Windows 2000	Stable	SP3	Recommended for all new installs
Windows XP	Stable	SP1	The death of the Win9x series. There's no rush to upgrade if you're on 2000, but it's the best choice for new installs.
Windows 2003 Server	Bleeding edge		No experience yet. Seems to fulfill some of the more paranoid predictions about Microsoft Corp. Not for home use.
Internet Explorer 5	Obsolete		Recommend upgrading to 5.5 at least
Internet Explorer 5.5	Stable	SP2	Generally accepted standard
Internet Explorer 6	Stable	SP1	If you use IE, you should upgrade to this version, but make sure you load the latest security rollup.
Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC)	Stable	Version 2.8	Latest version is always available here.
Microsoft Jet	Stable	SP8	Latest version is always available here. No longer installed with MDAC starting with version 2.6.

Identifying your SQL Server service pack

To identify what service pack is installed on a particular SQL server, execute the query "select @@version" and compare the results against this table. For example, here's the results on a SQL server running SQL 6.5 with Service Pack 5a installed:

Microsoft SQL Server 6.50 - 6.50.416 (Intel X86) 
        Jan 23 1999 14:10:24 
        Copyright (c) 1988-1997 Microsoft Corporation

All Service Packs are cumulative (SP3 includes SP2 and SP1), so installing a service pack includes all the earlier service packs. If you see version numbers in between these, it means you have a "hot-fix" release, which is a custom build to fix a particular problem. Hot-fix releases have not been regression tested, and should not be installed on production servers unless you accept the risks, which can be significant. Please e-mail me (bwilson at getright.org) if you encounter a different number, so I can fill in the gaps.

The symbol marks the versions which, in my opinion, you should be using. If more than one version is marked, use the latest available. As new versions are released and I gain more experience with them, I will try to keep this chart up to date.

Version #	SQL Server version
SQL Server 6.0
6.00.121	6.0 "gold" release
6.00.124	Service Pack 1
6.00.139	Service Pack 2
6.00.151	Service Pack 3
SQL Server 6.5
6.50.201	SQL 6.5 "gold" release
6.50.213	Service Pack 1
6.50.240	Service Pack 2
6.50.252	Service Pack 3 (known bad version)
6.50.258	Service Pack 3a
6.50.259	6.5 as included with Small Business Server only
6.50.281	Service Pack 4 (cannot be installed on SBS or Enterprise Edition)
6.50.297	"Site Server 3.0 Commerce Edition" hotfix
6.50.339	Y2K hotfix
6.50.415	Service Pack 5 (SQL 7.0 compatibility)
6.50.416	Service Pack 5a, 24Dec1998 (readme, fixlist, download)
6.50.464	Hotfix: error 213 on insert <table> exec <proc> (Q275483)
SQL Server 7.0
7.00.623	SQL 7.0 "gold" release
7.00.643	Hotfix: clustering servers with "-" in name (Q220156)
7.00.657	Hotfix: automated install (Q229875)
7.00.658	Hotfix: AV under high cursor stress (Q244763)
7.00.662	Hotfix: in with subquery may be slower than in 6.5 (Q232707)
7.00.699	Service Pack 1, 31Jul1999 (readme, fixlist, download)
7.00.722	Hotfix: oledb connections to DB2 (Q239458)
7.00.745	Hotfix: SQLAgent memory leak (Q253738)
7.00.770	Hotfix: Slow compile on join with unfiltered table (Q252905)
7.00.776	Hotfix: Error during shutdown (Q258087)
7.00.842	Service Pack 2, 20Mar2000 (readme, fixlist, download)
7.00.857	Hotfix: Publications with numeric filter do not replicate (Q260346)
7.00.879	Hotfix: Linked Index Server/OLEDB/or in where clause (Q281185)
7.00.889	Hotfix: Replication memory leaks (Q243741)
7.00.905	Hotfix: Data Modification Query with a Distinct Subquery on a View May Cause Error 3624 (Q274266)
7.00.910	Hotfix: SQL RPC That Raises Error Will Mask @@ERROR with Msg 7221 (Q275901)
7.00.917	Hotfix: bcp fails with long query (Q279180)
7.00.918	Hotfix: xp_ buffer overflow exploit (Q280380)
7.00.919	Hotfix: Incorrect results on join to convert([var]binary,) (SP2) (Q282243)
7.00.921	Hotfix: "nested queries" setting ignored on linked server (SP2) (Q283837)
7.00.961	Service Pack 3, 15Dec2000 (readme, fixlist, download)
7.00.970	Hotfix: "nested queries" setting ignored on linked server (SP3) (Q283837) Hotfix: Incorrect results on join to convert([var]binary,) (SP3) (Q282243)
7.00.977	Hotfix: SQL Server Profiler and SQL Server Agent Alerts May Fail to Work After Installing SQL Server 7.0 SP3 (Q284351)
7.00.978	Hotfix: Update with table aliases may miss rows (Q285870)
7.00.1004	Hotfix: SQL Server Text Formatting Functions Contain Unchecked Buffers (Q304851)
7.00.1020	Cumulative Security Patch, 24Jan2002 (Q304851)
7.00.1063	Service Pack 4, 26Apr2002 (readme, fixlist, download)
SQL Server 2000 (8.0)
8.00.194	SQL 2000 "gold" release
8.00.204	Hotfix: Optimizer Slow to Generate Query Plan for Complex Queries that have Many Joins and Semi-Joins (Q274329)
8.00.205	Hotfix: Sending Open Files as Attachment in SQL Mail Fails with Error 18025 (Q274330)
8.00.210	Hotfix: Linked Server Query with Hyphen in LIKE Clause May Run Slowly (Q275900)
8.00.211	Hotfix: Complex Distinct or Group By Query Can Return Unexpected Results with Parallel Execution Plan (Q276329)
8.00.217	Hotfix: CASE Using LIKE with Empty String Can Result in Access Violation or Abnormal Server Shutdown (Q279293) Hotfix: Using ALTER TABLE to Change Column Type Can Result in Unexpected NULL Values on INSERT (Q279296)
8.00.218	Hotfix: Scripting Object with Several Extended Properties May Cause Exception (Q279183)
8.00.222	Hotfix: AV in query normalization (Q281769)
8.00.223	Hotfix: xp_ buffer overflow exploit (Q280380)
8.00.225	Hotfix: SQLOLEDB leaves an open transaction (Q281663)
8.00.226	Hotfix: Extreme Memory Usage When Adding Many Security Roles (Q278239)
8.00.231	Hotfix: sp_OACreate can cause server shutdown (Q282279)
8.00.233	Hotfix: Opening the Database Folder in SQL Server Enterprise Manager 2000 Takes a Long Time (Q282416)
8.00.239	Hotfix: AV on complex ANSI joins of multiply distributed queries (Q285290)
8.00.249	Hotfix: Lock Monitor Uses Excessive CPU (Q288122)
8.00.250	Hotfix: xp_sqlagent_param Problems with Windows Authentication (Q291683)
8.00.287	Hotfix: Deletes, Updates and Rank Based Selects May Cause Deadlock of MSSEARCH (Q297209)
8.00.384	Service Pack 1, 12Jul2001 (readme, fixlist, download)
8.00.428	Hotfix: SQL Server Text Formatting Functions Contain Unchecked Buffers (Q304850)
8.00.443	Hotfix: SQLTrace Start and Stop is Now Reported in Windows NT Event Log for SQL Server 2000 (Q307538)
8.00.444	Hotfix: SQLPutData May Result in Leak of Buffer Pool Memory (Q307540) Hotfix: Querying Syslockinfo with Large Numbers of Locks May Cause Server to Stop Responding (Q307655)
8.00.452	Hotfix: SELECT DISTINCT from Table with LEFT JOIN of View Causes Error Messages or Client Application May Stop Responding (Q308547)
8.00.532	Service Pack 2, 30Nov2001 (readme, fixlist, download)
8.00.534	Cumulative security patch (Q316333)
8.00.679	SQL Server 2000 Security Update for Service Pack 2 (Q316333)
8.00.0760	Service Pack 3, 17Jan2003 (readme, readme addendum, fixlist, download)
SQL Server 2005 (9.0)
9.00.1399.06	SQL 2005 RTM
9.00.2047.00	Service Pack 1, 18Mar2006 ( readme, fixlist, download)