What is the difference between SQL Server Native Client SQLNCLI11 & SQLNCLI11.1?

Question

I'm having a look at a connection string with Provider=SQLNCLI11 and another one with Provider=SQLNCLI11.1 & i'm wondering what the difference between the two is.

What is the difference between SQLNCLI11 & SQLNCLI11.1?

Answer 1

Per this TechNet article the two versions point to the same CLSID under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. Thus they point to the same DLL. SQLNCLI11 is the version indpendent ProgID.

Depending on what Microsoft does when SQLNCLI11.2 comes around, it may be better to use the one without the ".1", although they could just as easily make .1 point to .2 when they release the update.