How To: Convert a SQLServer Named Instance to the Default

Having installed SQL Server as a named instance so you can have multiple instances running e.g. SQL2008, SQL2012 you might want to convert one to respond to the default so that you can use just the server name or the "." (dot) notation in connection strings for localhost.

This can be done in SQLServer Configuration Manager:

• Navigate to SQL Server Network Configuration, [version name] in the left hand pane.
• Select TCP/IP in the right hand pane, right click and select Properties
• Go to the IP Addresses tab
• Change TCP Dynamic Ports to be blank
• Make the TCP port the default value of: 1433

NB: This can only be configured for one of the instances.