I do a lot of database development, so I have several SQL Server and Oracle instances running on my system at any given time. Tonight I wanted to remove an instance of SQL Server that I installed a few weeks ago, but didn’t want to remove SQL Server in its entirety because I have other instances running that I want to keep. It turns out to be pretty easy to remove an instance, but not in an obvious way. I searched through the configuration tools and even launched the setup program to try and figure out how to do this. Finally, I turned to Bing and figured out the answer real quick.

Here for you, dear reader, is the Dummies guide to removing a SQL Server 2008 instance from your machine:

1. Navigate to Start | Control Panel | Programs and Features.

2. Select Microsoft SQL Server 2008 – or Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (64-bit) if applicable – and click Uninstall.

This is why I had a problem figuring out how to remove a SQL Server instance. I never thought of using Uninstall from Programs and Features because intuition told me that that would remove SQL Server from my machine entirely.

3. A dialog window will appear. Choose Remove.

4. The SQL Server Setup Wizard will launch. Click OK if all the setup support rules passed.

5. The next screen provides a list of all instances installed on the machine. Select the instance you want to remove from the Instance to remove features from drop down list and click Next.

6. In the Features section, select those features that you want removed. Since I am keeping another instance running on the machine I left all Shared Features installed and only removed the Database Engine Services associated with the instance being removed.

7. The next few screens should be pretty self-explanatory. Click through them as you are prompted to do so.

And voila! You have successfully removed a SQL Server instance from your machine. Not too difficult, was it?