Where does this permanent SQLExpress connectionstring come from (not web.config)?

Question

Today I noticed that in my `ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings` the very first instance is `.\SQLEXPRESS`. I remembered explicitly removing this entry from my web.config so I checked again, but didn't find a thing. Then I did a search over my entire solution, not a single match. Where the hell is this connection string coming from and how can I remove it?

Accepted Answer

It's in there by default, pulled in from your machine config file. To get rid of it just put

```
<clear />
```

Above your first connection string to remove it.

Where does this permanent SQLExpress connectionstring come from (not web.config)?

Solution

Problem