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The Windows HLK provides SQL Server Express which will be installed during the setup of a controller instance if a compatible SQL version is not found on the target system. If you would prefer to use a different edition of Microsoft SQL Server, the HLK supports 64-bit versions of SQL Server.
- The Windows HLK for Windows 10, version 2004 and earlier releases support Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2.
- The Windows HLK for Windows Server 2022 and later releases support Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and Microsoft SQL Server 2019.
- The July 2025 Refresh Release of the 24H2 HLK adds support for Microsoft SQL Server 2022.
Depending on your operating system, you might need to install additional service packs, cumulative updates, and hotfixes for SQL prior to installing the HLK.
Warning
- Releases of the HLK released before the Windows HLK for Windows Server 2022 do not support SQL Server 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2022. You must uninstall SQL Server prior to installing the HLK for these versions.
Install Microsoft SQL Server 2012, Microsoft SQL Server 2019, or Microsoft SQL Server 2022
Enable .NET 2.0/3.x feature from within Server Manager
Install SQL using the setup application using the following command line for a unattended install. /QUIET and /HIDECONSOLE flags may be omitted to see any errors that may occur during install.
(setup application) /QUIET /HIDECONSOLE /ACTION=install /FEATURES=SQL,RS /AGTSVCSTARTUPTYPE=Automatic /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS="BUILTIN\ADMINISTRATORS" "%USERDOMAIN%\%USERNAME%" /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER /TCPENABLED=1 /NPENABLED=1 /IAcceptSQLServerLicenseTerms=1
For SQL Server 2019, the following prerequisites are required before installing the HLK. Note that the following steps are no longer required for releases after the July 2025 refresh release of the 24H2 HLK.
Follow the same procedure for installing Microsoft SQL Server 2012, but before installing SQL via the command line, be sure to do the following:
- Install SQL Server 2012 SharedManagementObjects.msi (64-bit) from the following link:
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=239659&clcid=0x409 - Install SQL Server 2012 SQLSysClrTypes.msi (64-bit) from the following link:
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=239644&clcid=0x409
Using the HLK with standalone SQL Server 2012
When using the HLK with standalone SQL Server 2012, be aware that some tests can make thousands of database calls. Be sure to choose the right backup configuration and recovery model so that your transaction logs do not grow to be too large.
When using standalone SQL Server 2012, you have a choice of recovery models:
- Full recovery model enables point-in-time database recovery.
- Simple recovery model can only restore a database from most recent backup. There is no point-in-time recovery.
When the database is configured to simple recovery, previous logs will be truncated and that space will be made available for reuse. When the database is configured to full recovery, the transaction log continues to grow until a backup is performed. This helps provide a point-in-time recovery, but if backups are infrequent, it could generate an extremely large transaction log. If there are enough transactions, the log can become large enough to consume all available storage memory and crash the server.
We recommend using the Simple Recovery model when using the HLK with standalone SQL Server 2012. If you use the Full Recovery model, be sure to perform backups frequently enough that the transaction log size remains manageable.