title: How to fix Visual Studio's error "This server version is not supported..." for SQL Server 2012
body: <p>I recently installed Visual Studio 2010 and SQL Server 2012 on a Windows Server 2008 R2 machine - (including all updates/Service Packs).</p>
  
  <p>When attempting to work on a SQL Server database from within Visual Studio, VS throws the following error:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>This server version is not supported. Only servers up to Microsoft SQL
    Server 2008 are supported</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I recall getting this same error a while back (on a different computer) when I updated a SQL Server 2008 instance to SQL Server 2008 <strong>R2</strong>. The fix, back then, was to install (or reinstall) Visual Studio 2010 SP1. </p>
  
  <p>Now that I'm receiving this error again (on a new computer), I thought it reasonable to reinstall VS SP1 just like I did a while back. However, doing so did not fix the problem.</p>
  
  <p>It appears as though Visual Studio may need another update to support SQL Server 2012 instances.</p>
  
  <p>For clarity, here are the steps that I did to produce the error: (using VS 2010sp1 and SQL2012)</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Using VS, create a Windows Forms application</li>
  <li>Right-click the project and choose, Add > New Item</li>
  <li>Select "Service-based Database"</li>
  <li>Cancel out of the "Data Source Configuration Wizard"</li>
  <li>A Database will appear under your Project in Solution Explorer. Double-click the new database</li>
  <li>The Database will be added to Server Explorer's list of Data Connections</li>
  <li>In Server Explorer, open the database, right-click the Tables directory, then select "Add New Table"</li>
  <li>The error "This server version is not supported...." is thrown</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Screenshots for whatever its worth..
  <img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/mzkrt.png" alt="enter image description here">
  <img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/XEpjm.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>
  
  <p>My question is, is there a fix for this? If so, what is it?</p>