SSMS Quick Restore

A Visual Studio extension (VSIX) for SQL Server Management Studio 21 and 22 that reduces a database restore from ~8 clicks to one.

Demo

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Features

• Toolbar button + Tools menu item: "Restore from backup file..."
• Drag-and-drop: drop a .bak or .trn onto the SSMS window to open the dialog instantly
• Restore dialog with:
  • Multi-file support (striped backups)
  • Server connection dropdown pre-filled from Object Explorer
  • Ad-hoc connect dialog (Windows or SQL authentication)
  • Backup-set picker (RESTORE HEADERONLY)
  • Auto-filled file-relocation grid (RESTORE FILELISTONLY + server default paths)
  • Options: REPLACE (default on), NORECOVERY, STANDBY, KEEP_CDC, close existing connections, take tail-log backup
  • Script button: generates RESTORE T-SQL into the embedded output pane
  • Restore button: executes via SMO with live percent progress and timestamped log lines
  • Copy / Clear buttons on the output pane
• Dual logging: SSMS Output window pane + rolling file at %APPDATA%\SsmsQuickRestore\Logs\SsmsQuickRestore_YYYYMMDD.log

Requirements

Requirement	Version
SQL Server Management Studio	21 or 22
.NET Framework	4.8 (installed with SSMS)
Windows	10 / 11

Installation

Recommended: use the installer

1. Download SsmsQuickRestore-Setup-1.1.0.exe from the Releases page.
2. Close SSMS if it is running.
3. Right-click the .exe and choose Run as administrator (writing to Program Files requires elevation).
4. Click through Welcome -> License -> Install. The installer:
   • Auto-detects SSMS 22 / 21 install paths (default location + registry fallback)
   • Refuses to continue if SSMS isn't found and offers a download link
   • Copies the extension to <SSMS>\Common7\IDE\Extensions\SsmsQuickRestore\
   • Runs Ssms.exe /updateconfiguration so SSMS rebuilds its pkgdef cache
5. Launch SSMS. The toolbar button and Tools -> Restore from backup file... menu item appear.

Uninstall

Settings -> Apps -> "SSMS Quick Restore" -> Uninstall, or run unins000.exe from the install folder. The uninstaller removes the files and refreshes the SSMS configuration automatically.

Manual install (advanced)

If you prefer not to run the installer, download SsmsRestoreDrop.vsix from the Releases page and deploy it manually:

1. Close SSMS if it is running.

2. Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:

   $vsix    = 'C:\path\to\SsmsRestoreDrop.vsix'
   $extDir  = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 22\Release\Common7\IDE\Extensions\SsmsQuickRestore'
   $ssmsExe = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 22\Release\Common7\IDE\Ssms.exe'
   
   # Extract the VSIX (it is a ZIP archive)
   Add-Type -AssemblyName System.IO.Compression.FileSystem
   $tmp = Join-Path $env:TEMP 'SsmsQuickRestore_Extract'
   if (Test-Path $tmp) { Remove-Item $tmp -Recurse -Force }
   [System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::ExtractToDirectory($vsix, $tmp)
   
   # Copy into the SSMS Extensions folder
   New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $extDir | Out-Null
   Copy-Item "$tmp\*" $extDir -Recurse -Force
   
   # Patch the pkgdef so SSMS can locate the DLL via $PackageFolder$
   $pkgdef = Join-Path $extDir 'SsmsRestoreDrop.pkgdef'
   $c = [System.IO.File]::ReadAllText($pkgdef, [System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode)
   $c = $c -replace '"Assembly"="[^"]+"', '"CodeBase"="$PackageFolder$\SsmsRestoreDrop.dll"'
   [System.IO.File]::WriteAllText($pkgdef, $c, [System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode)
   
   # Refresh SSMS pkgdef cache
   & $ssmsExe /updateconfiguration | Out-Null

For SSMS 21, replace the path prefix accordingly. To uninstall manually, close SSMS, delete the Extensions\SsmsQuickRestore folder, and run Ssms.exe /updateconfiguration once.

Usage

Toolbar / menu

1. Click Restore from backup file... in the toolbar, or Tools -> Restore from backup file....
2. Pick one or more .bak/.trn files in the file picker.
3. In the Restore dialog:
   • Confirm or change the server connection (defaults to the active Object Explorer node).
   • Edit the target database name (defaults to the name from the backup header).
   • Pick the backup set (relevant when a file contains multiple sets).
   • Adjust file relocation paths if the destination differs from the source.
   • Toggle options (REPLACE is checked by default).
4. Click Script to view the T-SQL in the output pane, or Restore to execute.
5. Watch progress live in the output pane and the progress bar.
6. After success, choose Yes to close, or No to keep the dialog open and review the log.

Drag-and-drop

Drag one or more .bak/.trn files from Windows Explorer onto the SSMS window. The Restore dialog opens with the files pre-filled.

Building from source

Prerequisites

• .NET SDK (any recent 8.x or later) for dotnet build
• Visual Studio 2022 with the Visual Studio extension development workload, or the bundled Microsoft.VSSDK.BuildTools NuGet package (referenced by the project)
• SSMS 21 or 22 installed (the build references SMO + SqlWorkbench DLLs from the SSMS install dir to guarantee version match)

Build

# From the repo root
dotnet build src\SsmsRestoreDrop.csproj -c Release `
    -p:DeployExtension=false -p:DeployVsixExtensionFiles=false

Build artifacts (DLL, pkgdef, vsixmanifest, Resources) land in src\bin\Release\net48\. The packaged .vsix is built when the VSSDK targets are present.

One-shot build + deploy

deploy.ps1 builds Release, patches the pkgdef to use CodeBase, copies everything to Extensions\SsmsQuickRestore, and runs Ssms.exe /updateconfiguration. Run it from an Administrator PowerShell prompt:

.\deploy.ps1

Custom SSMS install path

If SSMS is installed somewhere other than the default path, set SsmsInstallDir in Directory.Build.props or pass it on the command line:

dotnet build src\SsmsRestoreDrop.csproj -c Release `
    -p:SsmsInstallDir="D:\SSMS22\Common7\IDE\"

Build the installer

The installer script lives in installer/SsmsQuickRestore.iss. Build with the bundled PowerShell wrapper (requires Inno Setup 6 in C:\Program Files (x86)\Inno Setup 6\):

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File installer\build-installer.ps1

The script builds the project in Release, patches the generated pkgdef (Assembly -> CodeBase), and produces installer\Output\SsmsQuickRestore-Setup-<version>.exe.

Run tests

dotnet test tests\SsmsRestoreDrop.Tests.csproj `
    -c Release --filter "TestCategory!=Integration"

Integration tests (require a real SQL Server and a .bak file):

$env:SSMS_TEST_CONN = "Server=.\SQLEXPRESS;Integrated Security=true"
$env:SSMS_TEST_BAK  = "C:\path\to\your.bak"
dotnet test tests\SsmsRestoreDrop.Tests.csproj

Architecture

src/
  SsmsRestoreDropPackage.cs          AsyncPackage entry point (ProvideAutoLoad on shell init)
  SsmsRestoreDrop.vsct               Command table (toolbar + Tools menu item)
  Commands/
    PackageGuids.cs                  GUIDs and command IDs
    RestoreFromFileCommand.cs        OleMenuCommand -> OpenFileDialog -> RestoreDialog
  Services/
    SsmsConnectionService.cs         Active Object Explorer connection via reflection
    BackupInspector.cs               RESTORE HEADERONLY / FILELISTONLY via SMO
    RestoreRunner.cs                 SMO Restore with PercentComplete / Information events
    RestoreOptions.cs                Option and progress data classes
  UI/
    RestoreDialogViewModel.cs        MVVM ViewModel, async backup-info loading
    RestoreDialog.xaml(.cs)          WPF restore dialog with embedded output pane
    ConnectDialog.xaml(.cs)          Ad-hoc SQL Server connect dialog
    ProgressToolWindow.cs            Dockable ToolWindowPane (legacy, no longer shown)
  DropHandler/
    BakFileDropTarget.cs             WPF PreviewDrop on Application.MainWindow
  Logging/
    Logger.cs                        Output-window pane + rolling log file
tests/
  BackupInspectorTests.cs            Unit and integration tests (MSTest)
deploy.ps1                           Build + deploy to SSMS Extensions folder

Notes and limitations

• No formal SSMS extension SDK: SSMS 21+ accepts VSIX packages but Microsoft has not published a stable extensibility SDK. This extension follows patterns from established community extensions. It may need adjustment if Microsoft changes the SSMS shell internals.
• SMO version: the build references SMO directly from the SSMS install dir so the assembly version always matches what SSMS loads at runtime (the SMO NuGet package lags the SSMS-internal SMO version).
• Object Explorer integration: the active connection is resolved via runtime reflection on SqlWorkbench.Interfaces.dll. If reflection fails, the ad-hoc Connect dialog still works.
• Backup sources: local disk and UNC share only. Azure Blob and S3 are out of scope.
• Azure Data Studio: out of scope (different extension model).

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Before opening a PR:

1. Run the unit tests (dotnet test ... --filter "TestCategory!=Integration").
2. Verify your change builds against an actual SSMS install (deploy.ps1).
3. Keep user-facing strings ASCII (no em-dashes, ellipses, or smart quotes).

License

MIT - see LICENSE.