title: Ad hoc updates to system catalogs are not allowed in SQL Server 2012
body: <p>I want to remove identity from a column by updating it like this..</p>
  
  <pre><code>sp_configure 'allow update', 1 
  go 
  
  reconfigure with override 
  go
  
  update sys.syscolumns 
  set colstat = 0    -- turn off bit 1 which indicates identity column 
  where id = object_id('tbl1') and name = 'ids'
  go
  
  sp_configure 'allow updates', 0 
  go 
  
  reconfigure 
  go
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I am getting this error, tried many times.</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Msg 259, Level 16, State 1, Line 15<br>
    Ad hoc updates to system catalogs are not allowed.</p>
  </blockquote>