Is It Ok To Remove Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 From A SQL 2008 R2 Server?
We still have one production SQL 2008 R2 Server. Yes, there are plans to upgrade soon, just not immediately. In the meantime, our Vulnerability reports are flagging the server as vulnerable because it has End of Life software:EOL/Obsolete Software: Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Detected EOL/Obsolete Software: Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 Detected
So we want to see if we can remove these components to resolve the vulnerability.
However, doing due diligence, I noticed that the install date for these under Add/Remove Programs is the same as the install date for SQL Server 2008 R2 itself.
So now I'm thinking these are "part of" SQL Server 2008 R2, and maybe it's not safe to remove them. Googling doesn't reveal anything definitive, with a lot of the found articles no longer available.
My question is can they be removed without negative impact to SQL Server 2008 R2, and if not, can they be upgraded to a version that's not EOL?What is Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 used for?
BIDS can be installed as part of the SQL Server 2008 R2 installation and is Visual Studio 2008 with additional templates. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms173767(v=sql.105).aspx I uninstalled BIDS on one of our dev servers and SQLServerCompact 3.5 SP2 was not removed so it's looking more and more like it is part of the basic SQL Server 2008 R2 installation. I am about to do a basic install on another of our servers to see if that is true.