Welcome Page

Overview

The Welcome Page is what Database Health Monitor opens on the first time it runs, before any SQL Server has been connected. It offers three ways to start, and each one is a single click.

Card What it does
Connect to a server Connects to a SQL Server, naming the ones it has found on this machine
Explore sample data Opens the whole product filled with a captured dataset, with no server and no credentials
Take the tour Five short stops around the window

Underneath them, on a trial installation, is how many days are left and a link to enter a licence key.

The page replaces the older welcome screen, which described the product and then asked the reader to go and find the Database menu for themselves. Nothing on that screen could do anything: every link on it opened a web page. Every control on this one acts.

Where to find it

Route How
First run Shown automatically when no instance has been connected
After removing every instance Disconnect the last server and the page returns

Two of the three cards are reachable at any time, whether the welcome page is on screen or not:

Item Where
Explore Sample Data Help menu
Guided Tour Help menu

That matters once you have connected a server, because the welcome page is no longer shown after that.

Connect to a server

Database Health Monitor looks for SQL Server instances installed on the machine it is running on, and offers them by name. On a developer machine or an evaluation box, which is where most first runs happen, this is the difference between one click and typing a connection string.

The card says one of three things, and they are genuinely different facts rather than three ways of saying no.

What it says What it means
Looking for SQL Server instances on this machine. The scan is still running
No SQL Server found on this machine. The scan finished and this machine has none. Connect to one on the network instead
Found MACHINE\SQL2022 on this machine. Click Connect

Where more than one is installed, the card names the best candidate and counts the rest. Another server opens the connect dialog with nothing filled in.

Which one it offers first

Instances are ranked by release, newest first, because on a machine with 2019 and 2022 side by side the newer is almost always the one worth opening. Where two are the same release, the default instance is offered ahead of a named one.

How the scan works

The list is read from the Windows registry rather than by broadcasting on the network. The registry answers immediately and is right about what is installed locally, which is the question this card is asking. Both the 64 bit and 32 bit registry views are read, so an instance registered by either installer is found.

Where the registry finds nothing at all, a network scan runs as a fallback and keeps only instances on this machine. That scan needs the SQL Server Browser service and can take a few seconds, which is why it is a fallback rather than the first thing tried.

The scan runs on its own thread. The page appears immediately and the card fills in when the answer arrives.

What it does not check

Whether the instance is running. An instance that is installed but stopped is still offered, and the connection attempt then fails with the real reason. Checking service state would mean asking Windows for a permission the product does not otherwise need, and it would still be a guess by the time you clicked.

The connect dialog

Connect opens the ordinary connect dialog with the server name already filled in. The dialog is still shown rather than connecting straight through, because Windows authentication is the usual answer on a local machine but not the only one, and a failed silent connect is a worse first five seconds than a dialog that is already correct.

The dialog’s server list also carries the servers you have connected to before, most recent first, ahead of the ones found by the scan. Only the server name is remembered, never the connection string, because a connection string can carry a SQL Server password.

Explore sample data

Sample data mode runs the entire product against a recorded dataset. Every report opens, grids sort, charts draw, and nothing connects to a database server. It exists so that the product can be evaluated on a machine that has no SQL Server on it, or in a meeting room with no network.

Click Open demo on the welcome page, or Help, Explore Sample Data at any time.

What you get What you do not
Every report the capture covers, with real shapes in the data Live data. Nothing here is from your servers
Sorting, filtering, charts, export Anything that writes. Writes are refused, not faked
Reports that are otherwise gated behind a licence Reports whose data was not in the capture

While it is running

The sample instance joins the tree alongside your own servers and is named (demo). Anything already connected keeps working normally and keeps talking to its real server: the choice is made per connection, so turning sample data on cannot quietly redirect a real instance.

Nothing is written to your settings file. The sample instance exists only while the mode is on, so closing the application, or a crash, leaves nothing behind to clean up.

Dates in the capture are moved forward so that a dataset recorded weeks ago still reads as the last few hours and days. The shift is a whole number of hours, which keeps the hourly patterns in the heat map reports intact.

To leave, use Help, Leave Sample Data.

If it is not installed

The sample dataset is a separate file that ships with the installer. If it is missing you get a message naming the file that was looked for rather than an empty product. See Messages you may see.

Take the tour

A short guided tour of the window: five stops, each dimming everything except the thing it is describing.

Stop What it covers
Your servers live here The tree, and what hangs off an instance
Connect and configure The menus, including light and dark and the Tools monitors
Help follows what you select The help strip under the tree
Getting back, and staying current Back, and F5 to re-run the current report
That is the tour Where to start, and how to run the tour again

The tour runs itself once, after the first server connects, rather than on the welcome page. A tour of an empty window has nothing to point at: the tree has no servers in it yet and no report is open.

Key or click What it does
Next or Enter The next stop
Back The previous stop
Skip tour, Escape, or a click on the dimmed area Ends it, and it does not offer itself again
Help, Guided Tour Runs it again whenever you want

The highlighted control still works. The dimming has a real hole in it rather than a lighter patch, so the tree stays clickable while the tour is describing it. A tour that has to be finished before the product can be used is a tour people learn to close unread.

The licence line

On a trial installation the foot of the page reads how many days are left, and clicking it opens the licence page.

State What it says
Trial, still running Trial, 12 days remaining. Enter license key
Trial, expired Trial expired on March 14, 2026. Enter license key
Licensed Nothing. There is nothing to say

Starting up

The splash screen no longer holds the application up while it is on screen. The window builds behind it, and the status messages on the splash describe what is actually happening rather than decorating a frozen window. Clicking the splash dismisses it, as it always did.

Messages you may see

The sample dataset is not installed, when Explore Sample Data is chosen on an installation without one:

The sample dataset is not installed with this copy of Database Health Monitor. Expected to find DemoCapture.zip beside the program, or in your Documents folder.

The file ships with the installer. Placing a copy in your Documents folder is enough, and that copy is preferred over the installed one, so a newer dataset can be used without reinstalling.

Not enough licenses, when Connect is used and every licensed connection is already in use:

Not enough licenses. There are several ways to extend your license count to connect to more SQL Servers.

The licence page opens behind it.

Page Why you would go there
Server Overview Where an instance opens once it is connected, and the page to start on
Quick Scan A scored health check of a newly connected instance

Frequently asked questions

Why does the welcome page not come back? It is shown when no instance is connected. Once one is, the product opens on the performance dashboard instead. Disconnect every instance and the welcome page returns, and the two cards worth reaching afterwards are on the Help menu anyway.

It says no SQL Server was found, but I know one is installed. The scan reads the registry of the machine it is running on. An instance on another machine is not found by design; use Another server and type its name. A local instance that is missing from the list is usually one installed under a registry view this process cannot read, which is rare, and typing the name still works.

It offered an instance and the connection failed. The scan reports what is installed rather than what is running, so a stopped instance is still offered. The dialog reports the actual failure.

Is the sample data from a real server? It is a recording taken from a SQL Server that exists for the purpose, running a generated workload. It is not a customer’s data and it is not synthetic.

Can I use sample data and my own servers at the same time? Yes. The sample instance is one more branch in the tree, and every other instance carries on talking to its real server.

Why is a report empty in sample data when it has data on my server? The capture is a recording of one moment. A report about something that is happening right now, such as blocking, was recorded on a server where nothing was blocked at that instant, so it has nothing to show. Reports whose queries were never captured are empty for the same reason.

Can I run the tour again? Help, Guided Tour, at any time, however many times you like.