Question: I just installed SQL Server Express on my PC and for some reason it is not showing in my list of available servers to connect on Visual Studio 2010. I added some pictures to explain exactly my problem. I have no idea how to fix this because it is up and running, but not showing up...

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/bByTR.png)

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/F587u.png)

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/CL6nU.png)

Answer: 
Had the same problem, after searching google for 2 hours while finding nothing, and the server name still wasn't there after refreshing for 100 times!

([server not working image](http://i.stack.imgur.com/IQIK3.png))

Then, I tried 1 more thing:

Ignoring the fact that my server doesn't apear on the list.

I just wrote the server nae "(local)\SQLEXPRESS" and went to the connection name which now was enabled! (I didn't realized that before!)

if you were fools like me, this might be the answer!

([server working image](http://i.stack.imgur.com/CVMcY.png))
Check the server name while connecting through Microsoft SQL Server.

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/4hrYj.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/4hrYj.png)

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/F80nX.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/F80nX.png)