Visual Studio Dev Essentials to download and install SQL Server Developer Edition

With the Microsoft BizSpark program now gone, so is the easy way to download and install SQL Server to your local machine for development purposes. Let’s take a look at using Visual Studio Dev Essentials to download and install SQL Server Developer Edition on your local machine for data development.

1. Join Visual Studio Dev Essentials and navigate to the portal
   1. https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/dev-essentials/

• Head over to the download section and select a version of SQL Server

• Download and Install! There should not be a key required. Remember, this is a local developer license and not to be used on a production instance.