Point to localhost\sqlexpress using only localhost

Question

Working on a common codebase, one developer is running SQL Server Express 2005 and the other 2 are running SQL Server 2005. Everything is working fine, but the connection st

Answer 1

This topic is dead and buried, I'm sure... But incase this also helps someone:

"one developer is running SQL Server Express 2005 and the other 2 are running SQL Server 2005"

When they installed, chances are the instance was named MSSQLSERVER. When you installed, chances are the instance was named SQLEXPRESS. MSSQLSERVER works as localhost out of the box, SQLEXPRESS does not. You can get round this in SQL Server Express by renaming SQLEXPRESS to MSSQLSERVER on install, for future reference.

John's solution is obviously cleaner.