I can't find how to identify which of my locally installed SQL instances should be the one that get the (local) designation. I looked in SQL Configuration manager and there isn't one defined that I can see.

CodePudding user response：

It's always the default instance (the one running under the service named "MSSQLSERVER").

But connections to (local) will try various protocols, and if you've got your default instance stopped, or have disabled the Shared Memory, then clients connecting to (local) will connect to whichever instance listens on port 1433 or is listening on the \\.\pipe\sql\query pipe. Both of which can be configured in the Configuration Manager.

If doing this I would probably have only TCP/IP enabled in the protocols for the server for simplicity.