Noob here, so be kind.

I'm attempting to install SQL Server 2008 Express in an attempt to learn something of SQL as a skill I can market to a potential employer (jobless right now). I've installed it, successfully according to the messages it created, but can't find anything (icons) to run it. A website that gives instructions on installing this said to install as the administrator, but since I'm the only user, couldn't I select my name, as am also the administrator?

Sal Murillo (murillo.sal (AT) gmail (DOT) com) writes:
SQL Express alone is just the server. And servers don't have icons. Or GUIs.

All you get with a basic download of SQL Express is the command-line tools
SQLCMD and OSQL. You can run queries from this, but it is not terribly
user-friendly in the long run.

There are other installs of SQL Express. I don't remember exactly all, but
get the with Advanced Services (I think it is called). That includes
SQL Server Management Studio Express.

I like to make to stress again that SQL Server is a server application
and does not have a GUI. Management Studio is a GUI, but it is just a
client like any other application, and it is only there to make it simple
to administer SQL Server and run ad-hoc queries. To develop a real
application, you need to use something like .Net. I mention this, because
I occasionally see people who have not understood this distinction,
but thinks that SQL Server is another Access.

--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel (AT) sommarskog (DOT) se

Links for SQL Server Books Online:
SQL 2008: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/cc514207.aspx
SQL 2005: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/bb895970.aspx