One seemingly minor change to SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) in SQL Server 2008 is that by default it will only allow the visually select the top 1000 rows . This is primary to save on memory which can be drained by loading numerous rows into the SSMS visual editor.
If, however, you don’t want to use SQL to edit or view rows and prefer just to right click the table and view or edit a large number of rows you can change the default setting of Select Top 1000 Rows.
To do this, in SSMS navigate to Tools > Options… > SQL Server Object Explorer > Commands and then edit the value for Value for Select Top <n> Rows command:
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