Customizing Display Columns in SQL Server Management Studio Table Designer

There are already many articles on this topic online, but to ensure this information remains available even if those sites disappear, I am writing my own note for documentation.

In SSMS, the default columns displayed in the table designer are limited to "Column Name", "Data Type", and "Allow Nulls":

In reality, the commonly used columns are not limited to these. Unfortunately, as of SSMS 20.2 and earlier versions, there is no UI provided to edit these display columns; you must customize them by modifying the Windows Registry.

How to Customize Display Columns

1. Run "regedit.exe" to open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to the following path (20.0_IsoShell corresponds to the location for SSMS 20; older versions may use {version}_IsoShell or {version}): \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SQL Server Management Studio\20.0_IsoShell\DataProject.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SQL Server Management Studio\20.0_IsoShell\DataProject

3. Modify the SSVPropViewColumnsSQL80 setting; the default value is 1,2,6. The available values are as follows:

Value	Display Column	Description
1	Column Name	Column Name
2	Data Type	Data Type
3	Length	Length
4	Precision	Precision
5	Scale	Scale
6	Allow Nulls	Allow Nulls, displayed as a checkbox
7	Default Value	Default Value
8	Identity	Identity
9	Identity Seed	Identity Seed
10	Identity Increment	Identity Increment
11	Row GUID	RowGuid, sets whether the column is the RowGuidCol for the table
12	Nullable	Nullable, displayed as a "Yes/No" dropdown
13	Condensed Type	Condensed Data Type
14	Not for Replication	Not for Replication
15	Formula	Formula
16	Collation	Collation
17	Description	Description

Based on my usage habits, I choose the following columns:

• 1: Column Name
• 2: Data Type
• 6: Allow Nulls
• 7: Default Value
• 8: Identity
• 17: Description

The reasons are as follows:

• Column 2 (Data Type) automatically displays 3 (Length), 4 (Precision), and 5 (Scale) for relevant types.
• In most cases, after setting column 8 (Identity), 9 (Identity Seed) and 10 (Identity Increment) will both be 1.
• Most other columns are rarely used.

The configuration result is as follows:

The result after modification is as follows:

In addition to SSVPropViewColumnsSQL80, there is also SSVPropViewColumnsSQL70, which is primarily for compatibility with SQL Server 7.0 versions and generally does not need to be modified.

WARNING

When setting the registry key, ensure that SSMS is not running; otherwise, the changes will not take effect. If you click to edit again and find the values have reverted, it is because the registry key was reset after restarting the application.

References

• SQL Server Management Studio Table Designer Column Descriptions.

Change Log

• 2024-07-15 Initial document creation.