that was it! i selected Workstation Components and verified that Client Tools was going to be installed. after the install SSMS and all other goodies i'd expect showed up...

yeah i think the brick wall i've encountered is i'm not a db anything (dBase or otherwise). i'm more like a trained monkey and can "click here" or "type...

Thanks dh-1004000. thanks for the help so far and sorry i missed the 8/16 posting. i scanned through posting today so i wouldn't be redundant, but obviously missed...

we use phpchain, now called PasswordChain. it's great for keeping all our password info. we have a group account for common password stuff (i.e., SQL passwords, server login...