How To Add And Remove SQL Server 2008 / 2008R2 Instances
After installing Visual Studio 2010 I, inadvertently ended up with SQL Server 2008 Express having already installed SQL Server 2008 Developer. Only when I was going to upgrade to SQL Server 2008R2 I found out I had two instances installed.
I looked everywhere for a place to remove the SQLEXPRESS instance but couldn’t find it.
Only when I decided to uninstall the entire SQL Server suite and start over I found how to do it.
| On Windows 7, go to Programs and Features and choose Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (64-bit) (or whatever your version of SQL Server you want to add or remove and instance from). |  |
| Choose Remove (or Add, if you want to add a new instance). |  |
| Follow the steps and choose which instance you want to remove. |  |
| Select the features of that instance you want to remove (select all to remove the instance).
Note: Don’t remove shared features if you don’t want to remove any other instances. |  |
It’s probably something I should have known, but I didn’t and it wasn’t easy to find.