SQL Server Management Studio standalone download

Something I see online all the time, is people trying to find a standalone download for SQL Server Management Studio. Until recently, it seems, Microsoft certainly didn’t make it easy to just install the client tools without having to install the entire SQL Server database engine as well. The are plenty of reasons why you might want to install just the client tools and not the database engine on your computer, after all, in this world of self-service business intelligence, it’s no longer just developers and DBAs who are playing with data directly.

Fortunately, with SQL 2012 Express, you have a wide variety of download options, ranging from a standalone version of SSMS Express, to SQL Express (including SSMS), with Reporting Services  and Full Text Search.

Check out https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29062 to download SSMS as a standalone component.