**(not a trick)

If you are developing your databases in SSDT, then chances are you are familiar with LocalDB. LocalDB is essentially as stripped-down version of the database engine that runs within Visual Studio, and whenever you hit F5 the database is deployed to LocalDB… sometimes.

You see, LocalDB is in fact pretty much SQL Express, the free version of SQL Server. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, except that SQL Server Express does not support all features, like say for example, full text search. But what else is missing? There’s no performance counters, but is that too much of an issue?

In fact, any Enterprise feature is not available in LocalDB, but you can fix this problem with one simple trick: download SQL Server Developer Edition for free! Yep, this is a new Microsoft, one which will give you the full fat features at zero cost. This announcement was some months ago, but it does surprise me how many people were not aware of this fact.