Database Engine not appearing in SQL Server listing

Question

I don't know if I'm searching for the wrong queries in google but I can't seem to find an answer to this. I have SQL Server 2008 installed in my pc and according to services.msc, I've got 2 database engines running: SQLEXPRESS (probably one that came along with Visual Studio) and MSSQLSERVER. When I try to connect only SQLEXPRESS is visible in the Server Name drop down list. I tried to explicitly state MSSQLSERVER by typing in

MYPCNAME\MSSQLSERVER

Didn't work. The best solution I could find in the internet was to enable stuff at Configuration Manager. Didn't work either (although I did find that TCP/VIA and all other options were disabled for MSSQLSERVER).

Anyone have any other ideas on what I should try next or probably something that I overlooked?

Answer 1

By default SQL Express installs itself as a named instance (\SQLExpress) so you need to specify that when connecting to it.

SQL Server doesn't do this (unless you tell it to during setup) so you connect to it with just the machine name.