SOLVED: What is the SQL Server Browser Service & Should It Be Running or Disabled?

The SQL Server Browser service allows users to easily connect to a SQL instance when there are multiple instances on the same computer. Without the SQL browser service you would need to assign port numbers to each instance to differentiate between them, which is a minor pain.

So if like most SQL servers you only have a single instance of SQL running the SQL Server Browser service should be disabled.

Having the SQL Server Browser service running will not cause problems but it does chew up a tiny amount of resources that returns no benefit for most installations.