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Asked: 2026-05-21T11:12:13+00:00

I have installed an application and each file saved is .mdf. During installation of

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I have installed an application and each file saved is .mdf. During installation of the software I have not seen any database being installed, and after installation I checked my program files and not SQL server or other database server being installed. I though the application would have an embedded database, but SQL Compact should only generate .sdf file, not .mdf file – what kind of embedded database sever would create .mdf file?

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  1. Editorial Team

    There’s a fair chance that Sql Server Express User Instances are being used. Though if you’re sure that you’ve checked both Program Files and Program Files(x86) and can’t see any references to Sql Server then that can’t be the case. That said, use the Services management console (Start > Services.msc) and look for services whose names start with “SQL Server” to verify that for definite.

    One thing worth bearing in mind is that just because an application saves files with an extension of .mdf that doesn’t mean that the files are Sql Server files. I could save a text file in notepad as myfile.mdf, but that still wouldn’t make it a Sql Server file.

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