Changes in Management Studio keyboard shortcuts

A few keyboard shortcuts have changed in the code editor of the SQL Server 2014 Management Studio. Personally, I found this incredibly annoying because I’ve been using Ctrl+E for many years to execute a query, but now, all I got was

(Ctrl+E) was pressed. Waiting for the second key of chord...

.. in the status bar.

Here are some of the more important changes to the keyboard shortcuts that I’ve found so far:

• Executing a query is now done with Ctrl+Shift+E or F5 (used to be Ctrl+E or F5)
• Displaying the estimated query plan: Ctrl+Shift+Alt+L (used to be Ctrl+L) according to the documentation. On my RTM version of SQL Server 2014, however, there was no apparent keyboard shortcut at all for this command.
• Including the estimated query plan: Ctrl+Shift+Alt+M (used to be Ctrl+M)

According to Microsoft, this change is a result of a harmonisation between Visual Studio, where Ctrl+Shift+E is used to execute queries, and SQL Server Management Studio, where Ctrl+E rules. Pressing four (4) keys simultaneously for something I do obsessively every few seconds as part of my work with query tuning is just not going to fly, though.

How to change it back

There is a way to reset your keyboard shortcuts to those you’re used to from SQL Server 2008/2012. In fact, this problem seems to have been an issue with the CTP release of SQL Server 2012 already.

Here’s how to reset your SSMS settings:

1. Open the “Tools” menu i SSMS,
2. Select “Import and Export settings…”,
3. Select the “Reset all settings” option, click “Next”,
4. On the last page of the wizard, you have the option to back up your current settings. I would recommend you to do this.

The entire blog post on resetting your SSMS settings can be found on MSDN Blogs.

Also, here’s the complete MSDN documentation on all keyboard shortcuts in SSMS.