Launching RDP and SSMS

Aireforge Studio can launch Remote Desktop or SQL Server Management Studio for a server, from the Connect button on the Estate ribbon or the Launch submenu on a server's right-click menu. There are no settings to configure: both are fixed launchers, and both work on one server at a time.

Remote Desktop

Launches mstsc.exe against the server's host, with the port and instance stripped from the address first. It is not available for Azure SQL Database. There are no saved credentials, gateway settings or display options: Studio starts the session and Windows takes it from there.

SQL Server Management Studio

Studio looks for SSMS in its default install location, checking versions 20 down to 18 (C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio <version>\Common7\IDE\Ssms.exe). If none is found, it reports an error; there is no setting to point it at a different path.

SSMS is launched with -nosplash -S <address>, adding -E for Windows Authentication or -U/-P for SQL Server Authentication. Only Windows Authentication is handled specially: launching SSMS for a server set to Microsoft Entra authentication still passes a username and password, which that authentication type does not use.