Connect SQL Management Studio as a different user

Consultants often need to use different user account to connect to SQL servers or databases.

As not every customer wants to give consultants direct access to the server we use a local version of SQL Management Studio and connect via that to the databases.
SQL Management Studio runs by default under the credentials of the current user. When you select runas different user via Shift and right click the icon you get the option to connect as a different user. Problem is that accounts from customers aren’t allowed to log on.

To be able to connect as a user from a different domain you need to run the SQL Management Studio as followed:

runas /netonly /user:domain\username “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Tools\Binn\Management Studio\Ssms.exe”

I’ve create a batch file for every customer with corresponding domain and username.