In this article we going to learn what's new in SQL Server Management Studio 22 — the latest release that shipped in November 2025 — and why you should upgrade from your current version.
If you're still on SSMS 18 or 19, this is a good time to move. Microsoft announced that with the release of SSMS 22, all previous versions no longer receive support or updates. So bugs, security issues, anything that needs fixing — those older versions are on their own now. SSMS 22 is where everything is moving forward.
And honestly, SSMS 22 is a pretty big jump. GitHub Copilot built right into the tool, ARM64 support, new color themes including dark mode, SQL Server 2025 features like JSON and Vector data types, a query hint recommendation tool — a lot changed. Let me walk through the important ones.
This tutorial shows how to:
- Download and install SSMS 22
- Use GitHub Copilot inside SSMS for SQL assistance
- Work with the new connection dialog and its improvements
- Use the Query Hint Recommendation tool to optimize slow queries
- Switch between the new color themes including dark mode
- Work with JSON and Vector data types from SQL Server 2025
- Use the new execution plan tab feature
- Connect to Microsoft Fabric from SSMS
Why Upgrade to SSMS 22
Two big reasons. First — old versions are no longer supported. If you hit a bug in SSMS 19 or 20, there won't be a fix coming. Second — the new features are genuinely useful, not just cosmetic. GitHub Copilot integration alone is worth the upgrade for developers who write a lot of T-SQL.
SSMS 22 was released as Generally Available in November 2025. This is the fastest Microsoft has ever shipped two major SSMS versions in the same year — SSMS 21 came out in May 2025 and 22 followed in November. Both are significant releases.
Step 1 : Download and Install SSMS 22
Go to this URL to download SSMS 22 :
https://aka.ms/ssms
One thing that's different from older SSMS versions — SSMS 22 installs through the Visual Studio Installer. The initial download is a small bootstrapper file (vs_ssms.exe) that launches the Visual Studio Installer which then downloads the actual SSMS components.
This does NOT mean you need Visual Studio installed. The Visual Studio Installer is just the installation framework — SSMS itself is a separate product.
During installation you'll see component checkboxes. If you want GitHub Copilot integration, check that box. You can also add Git support and the Query Hint Recommendation tool here.
If you already have SSMS 21 installed, the installer gives you the option to copy workloads, components, settings, and extensions from SSMS 21 to SSMS 22. Saves you from reconfiguring everything from scratch.
After installation, SSMS 22 can run side by side with older SSMS versions. You don't need to uninstall your previous version first.
Step 2 : New Connection Dialog
When you open SSMS 22 and click Connect, the first thing you'll notice is the new connection dialog. This was introduced in SSMS 21 as an opt-in, but in SSMS 22 it's the default.
The new dialog is cleaner and shows more information upfront — you can see Connection Properties and the Connection String right in the dialog without digging through tabs.
A few additions worth knowing about :
Reset button — clears all the fields in the Connection Properties section with one click. Handy when you want to start fresh without manually deleting each field.
Microsoft Fabric connection — you can now connect directly to SQL databases and data warehouses in Microsoft Fabric from the connection dialog. So if your team is using Fabric alongside SQL Server, SSMS 22 handles both from the same tool.
Better encryption options — if you're connecting without a certificate, use the Optional encrypt setting instead of Mandatory. This avoids the "A connection was successfully established with the server, but then an error occurred during the login process" error that tripped up a lot of developers after the SSMS 18 encryption changes.
Step 3 : GitHub Copilot Integration
This is the biggest new feature in SSMS 22. GitHub Copilot is now built into SSMS as a chat panel that opens on the right side of the screen.
To use it, you need a GitHub account with an active GitHub Copilot subscription. After signing in, you can ask Copilot questions about SQL directly inside SSMS.
Some things you can do with Copilot in SSMS :
- Ask it to write a query for you — "write a query to find the top 10 customers by total spend in the last 30 days"
- Ask it to explain a complex stored procedure
- Ask it to help debug a query that's returning wrong results
- Ask it about SQL Server concepts — execution plans, index types, isolation levels
To open Copilot, go to View → GitHub Copilot Chat or look for the Copilot icon in the toolbar.
One thing to be aware of — Copilot in SSMS is still in preview as of the GA release. It's useful but it can be wrong. Don't trust its output blindly for anything going to production without reviewing it. But for getting a starting point on a complex query or understanding an unfamiliar codebase, it saves a lot of time.
Step 4 : Query Hint Recommendation Tool
This one is genuinely exciting for anyone who works on query performance. The Query Hint Recommendation tool is a new feature in SSMS 22 that analyses a SELECT query and suggests the best query hints to improve its performance.
Open it from Tools → Query Hint Recommendation Tool. The panel opens on the right side.
Write or paste a SELECT query in the editor, highlight it, then click Start in the Query Hint Recommendation panel. SSMS runs the query with different hint combinations — things like FORCE_LEGACY_CARDINALITY_ESTIMATION, MAXDOP hints, join hints — and tells you which combination gives the best execution plan.
Current limitations as of GA release :
- Only SELECT queries are supported. DML statements (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE) and stored procedures are not supported yet.
- Works best with queries against tables with statistics available.
The Advanced tab in the tool shows all the hints it will try. If you click through to the results, it shows an execution plan comparison between your original query and the recommended hint version.
This is especially useful when you have a query that regressed after a statistics update or a SQL Server upgrade and you're trying to figure out why the optimizer is making a bad choice.
Step 5 : New Color Themes and Dark Mode
SSMS has had a mostly grey interface forever. SSMS 22 finally adds proper color themes.
To change the theme go to Tools → Options → All Settings → Environment → Visual Experience.
Available themes include :
- Cool Breeze (the new default)
- Dark (proper dark mode — this is the one most people have been waiting for)
- Spicy Red
- Juicy Plum
- And several others
Dark mode in particular is a big deal for developers who spend long hours in SSMS. The editor, Object Explorer, results grid — all switch to dark. No more blinding white background at 11pm.
Step 6 : Zoomable Results Grid
Small feature but very useful. In SSMS 22 you can zoom in and out on the results grid using Ctrl + Mouse Scroll Wheel.
No more going to Options → change font size → restart SSMS just to see results more clearly. Just hold Ctrl and scroll to zoom in. Let go of Ctrl and scrolling moves through the results normally.
This is also great for presentations and screen sharing — zoom in so the audience can actually read your query results without squinting.
Also fixed in SSMS 22 — when the results grid has focus, you can now scroll the query editor with your mouse wheel when hovering over it. Previously SSMS would ignore mouse wheel input on the editor when results had focus, which was annoying.
Step 7 : Rename Query Tabs
Another small but useful quality of life change. In SSMS 22 you can rename query tabs.
Right-click on any query tab at the top. You'll see a Rename option. Click it, type the new name, press Enter.
This sounds minor but when you have 8 query tabs open and they all say "SQLQuery1.sql, SQLQuery2.sql..." finding the right one is painful. Now you can name them something meaningful like "Get Orders by Date", "Fix Product Query", "Test Index".
Step 8 : Execution Plan in New Tab
Working with execution plans just got cleaner. In SSMS 22 you can save an execution plan to a new tab for later analysis.
Run a query with Include Actual Execution Plan enabled. When the plan appears, right-click on it and select Show Execution Plan in New Tab.
The execution plan opens in its own dedicated tab. This is useful when you want to :
- Compare the plan from before and after an index change
- Keep a reference plan while tuning a query
- Share the plan with a teammate by working side by side
Previously you had to save the plan as a .sqlplan file and reopen it just to keep it around. Now it stays in a tab.
Step 9 : SQL Server 2025 Feature Support
SSMS 22 includes support for the new data types and features introduced in SQL Server 2025 — which also launched in late 2025.
JSON data type — SQL Server 2025 adds a native JSON data type (up to 2GB per row). SSMS 22 has a JSON viewer built in so you can see formatted JSON directly in the results grid. IntelliSense also understands the JSON data type now.
Vector data type — for AI and machine learning scenarios. SQL Server 2025 supports storing embedding vectors natively. SSMS 22 lets you visualize vector data and save it to a JSON file for external tools.
-- Creating a table with vector column (SQL Server 2025)
CREATE TABLE Products (
ProductId INT IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
Name NVARCHAR(100),
Embedding VECTOR(3, float32)
);
SSMS 22 handles scripting, table designer, edit data, and IntelliSense for both these new types.
If you're not on SQL Server 2025 yet, these features just stay inactive. SSMS 22 works fine with SQL Server 2019, 2022, and Azure SQL as well.
Step 10 : ARM64 Support
If you're on a Windows machine with an ARM processor — like a Qualcomm Snapdragon laptop or a Surface Pro X — previous versions of SSMS ran through emulation, which made them slower and sometimes unstable.
SSMS 22 has native ARM64 support. It runs natively on ARM Windows devices, which means better performance and no emulation overhead. If you've been avoiding SSMS on an ARM laptop, that's no longer a reason to.
Common Issues After Upgrading
Can't connect — certificate error
Set Encrypt to Optional in the connection dialog instead of Mandatory. This is the most common connection issue after upgrading from older SSMS versions that didn't enforce encryption by default.
Settings didn't carry over from old SSMS
During installation, make sure to select the option to import settings from the previous SSMS version. If you missed it, go to Tools → Import and Export Settings to manually import settings from a saved file.
GitHub Copilot panel doesn't show
Make sure you installed the Copilot component. Open Visual Studio Installer, find SSMS 22, click Modify, and add the GitHub Copilot component. After reinstalling the component, restart SSMS and try View → GitHub Copilot Chat.
SSMS 22 is slower to start than older versions
The Visual Studio Installer-based SSMS does have a slightly longer startup time on first launch due to initialization. After the first launch it caches what it needs and starts faster.
Summary
You learned what's new in SSMS 22 and how to use the key new features. You covered :
- Downloading and installing SSMS 22 via the Visual Studio Installer
- The new connection dialog with Reset button and Microsoft Fabric support
- GitHub Copilot integration for writing and explaining T-SQL queries
- Query Hint Recommendation tool for finding the best query hints automatically
- New color themes including proper dark mode via Tools → Options → Visual Experience
- Zoomable results grid with Ctrl + Mouse Scroll Wheel
- Renaming query tabs by right-clicking
- Saving execution plans to a new tab for easier comparison and analysis
- SQL Server 2025 support for JSON and Vector data types
- Native ARM64 support for ARM Windows devices
SSMS 22 is a solid upgrade. The GitHub Copilot integration and Query Hint Recommendation tool alone are worth the move. Dark mode is a long time coming. And with older versions no longer getting support, there's no real reason to stay on an older version.
I hope you like this article...
Happy coding! 🚀
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