Create a MS SQL link to MySQL database

To create a MS SQL link to MySQL database, first be sure to install the MySQL ODBC Connector from here: http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/

Create a new System DNS for the MySQL Database on the ODBC Data Source Administrator from the Control Panel | Administrative Tools

To establish a link to the MySQL database from the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio, open a query window and run the following SQL statement:

EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedserver
@server = N'MYSQL',
@srvproduct=N'MySQL',
@provider=N'MSDASQL',
@provstr=N'DRIVER={MySQL ODBC 5.1 Driver}; SERVER=localhost; DATABASE=; USER=root; PASSWORD=; OPTION=3'

This script will produce a link to the MySQL database through the ODBC connection.

Unable to open Server Explorer in Visual Studio

When server explorer doesn't open when clicking on the menu option View|Server Explorer, the first solution is to run the command /ResetSkipPkgs on the visual studio command prompt. Open a development command line window by clicking on the Start|Programs|Microsoft Visual Studio 2008|Visual Studio Tools|Visual Studio 2008 Command Prompt shortcut.
Type devenv /resetskippkgs in there. What /ResetSkipPkgs does is that it clears all options to skip loading added to VSPackages by users wishing to avoid loading problem VSPackages, and then starts Visual Studio. The presence of a SkipLoading tag disables the loading of a VSPackage; clearing the tag re-enables the loading of the VSPackage.

If this doesn't work, then reinstall the visual studio again.