When you ran the installation for PHDwin you should have received a prompt about installing MS SQL Server. If you chose the “No” option, this section covers doing a manual install of SQL Server Express. Otherwise, you can skip to @Logging in and Creating a New Database . The steps to install an instance of Microsoft SQL Server Express is the same for a local or network server installation. PHDwin is compatible with SQL Server or SQL Server Express 2012, 2014, and newer. However, we highly recommend utilizing 2019 or newer if possible.

To Run the Installation

1.Open windows explorer and go to the Downloads folder (or the location that you downloaded the file). Double-click on the file named SQL2019-SSEI-Expr.exe to begin the installation. Select Custom then Install.

2.This will open the SQL Server Installation Center – click on New SQL Server stand-alone or add features to an existing installation.

3.This will open the SQL Server 2019 Setup window. Review and accept the license terms and click Next.

4.On the Product Updates page – check the box to Include SQL Server product updates if there are any and click Next.

5.On the Installation Type page, choose Perform a new installation of SQL Server 2019 and click Next.

6.On the License Terms page – Accept the License Terms and click Next.

7.On the Feature selection page, choose the Database Engine Services at the very minimum and click Next. Note: You can also choose to install Management Tools – Basic which is the database management interface – but this can also be installed at a later time if you need it. You do not need to install SQL Server replication, Reporting Services, Analysis Services or Business Intelligence to run PHDwin.

8.On the Instance Configuration page – You can use the default instance or choose to name the instance. Instance names cannot not be changed once the initial instance name has been established. Microsoft recommends that you use the default instance if it will be the only one on the machine. If you name the Instance, be sure to make a note of the name so that you can select it later when you go to run PHDwin. The instance name cannot contain any special characters (besides underscore) or spaces.

9. On the Server Configuration page – leave both accounts to automatically start up and click Next. Note: It is especially important to leave the SQL Server Browser to start automatically if you are installing on a server. This means that the instance will show up when the users browse for an instance to connect to within PHDwin.

10.On the Database Engine Configuration page, you can set up the security mode and specify any SQL Server Administrators.

·Security Mode Select Windows Authentication or Mixed Mode Authentication for your instance of SQL Server. If you select Mixed Mode Authentication, you must provide a strong password for the built-in SQL Server system administrator account. With Mixed Mode, users can still login using Windows Authentication, but you also have a backup master password in case domain accounts are somehow compromised.

·SQL Server Administrators You must specify at least one system administrator for the instance of SQL Server. To add the account under which SQL Server Setup is running, click Add Current User. To add or remove accounts from the list of system administrators, click Add or Remove, and then edit the list of users, groups, or computers that will have administrator privileges for the instance of SQL Server.

oAny account that you add here will have full privileges to run PHDwin on the instance that you are installing.

oIt is recommended that you are the administrator for local instances. If you are not the Administrator, you will need to get someone who is an administrator to build the first PHDwin database, and add your login as a user to the default databases (see @Creating SQL Logins ).

11. On the Error Reporting page, choose if you’d like to send error reports to Microsoft and click Next.

12.This will take you to the Complete page where you can view the information about and complete the installation and hit Close.