This tip isn’t new, but it’s still useful. I found myself building a new development box this week, and I didn’t want to use SQLExpress for the Windows Azure development storage. Instead, I wanted to use the default instance for SQL Server.
It’s pretty simple to do this – after you install the Windows Azure SDK and Tools, go to a command prompt and browse to the following folder:C:Program FilesWindows Azure SDKv1.2bindevstore (or wherever you installed the SDK). From there, use the DSInit.exe tool:
DSInit.exe /sqlInstance:.
Remember that the . is a reference to the default instance. If you want to target an instance name, you can use:
DSInit.exe /sqlInstance:YourInstanceName
Note: from riverlau
In SDK v1.6, the DSInit.exe path is changed to "C:\Program Files\Windows Azure Emulator\emulator\devstore\DSInit.exe"