“Saving changes is not permitted. The changes you have made require the following tables to be dropped and re-created.”

Management Studio 2008 has a default that prevents saving table changes from the designer when the table will need to be rebuilt. I’m constantly being asked about this error by developers:

“Saving changes is not permitted. The changes you have made require the following tables to be dropped and re-created.”

To be able to make table changes go to Tools->Options->Designers and uncheck “Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation”.

It’s a good idea to do this as soon as you install 2008. Tell everyone around you. I’m asked about it quite often.