title: Separate SQL server instance started by Visual Studio with high CPU usage
body: <p>I am working on a complex VS 2012 solution (ASP.NET project, a bunch of class library projects, solution linked to a TFS source code repository, etc). I also have SQL Server running, as a Windows Service, and my solution uses it.</p>
  
  <p>For some reason, Visual Studio starts its own instance of SQL Server (I see two instances of sqlservr.exe, one with a services.exe parent process and one with a devenv.exe parent process). This 2nd process started by VS seems completely unrelated to the application I'm working on (killing the process seemingly has no effect whatsoever, I can still use both VS and my app, but VS always re-starts it after a while if I kill it). My best guess is that VS uses this instance to manage its own internal data (Intellisense? TFS source control data?)</p>
  
  <p>All this wouldn't be a problem, except for one thing: This process frequently goes into high CPU usage mode, often 90% or above. As you can imagine, this is driving me crazy - CPU usage is often near capacity during development, and killing the process only helps temporarily. I've tried all the standard techniques used when debugging high CPU usage by SQL Server, but to no avail, since with all SQL tools I can only connect to the "real" SQL Server instance, not the "special" instance created by Visual Studio. How can I eliminate this problem? Any help would be <em>greatly</em> appreciated.</p>