Changing sa password

I'm trying to change the password of the sa account using SQL Server Management Studio 2012. I've followed the steps below but the password is still the same.

• Login into the SQL Server Management Studio, Select Database Engine, \SBSmonitoring, Windows Authentication.

• Go to Object Explorer--Security folder--Logins folder.

• Right click on SA account and select the Properties option.

• In General Page, change the SA password and confirm it.

• In Status Page, change Login to Enabled. Click OK to save the change.

• Restart the SQL Server and all its services.

Any idea ?

You were really near with your solution. You just have to restart the SQL Server instance \SBSMonitoring after changing the sa password as explained in the following article and ensure that Mixed Mode Authentication is turned on.
Solution

Reference: What is the default password for 'sa' account in windows sbs 2011 standard (I have modified the orginal listing slightly):

-
Login into the SQL Server Management Studio

• Select Database Engine, \SBSmonitoring

• open Server Properties

• click on the Security section

• select SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode

• Click on OK

• Restart SQL Server instance

-
Go to Object Explorer--Security folder--Logins folder.

-
Right click on SA account and select the Properties option.

-
In General Page, change the SA password and confirm it.

-
In Status Page, change Login to Enabled. Click OK to save the change.

-
Restart the SQL Server and all its services.

This should do the job.
Alternative solution

Run the following statement to set the SQL Server instance to Mixed mode:

USE [master]
GO
EXEC xp_instance_regwrite N'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE', N'Software\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\MSSQLServer', N'LoginMode', REG_DWORD, 2
GO

Then restart your server and change the sa password as you normally would.
Mixed Mode (SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode)

If you don't turn on Mixed Mode authentication you will constantly receive an error message when trying to log in with the sa SQL Server login even though you have changed the password and enabled the login.

Enabling Mixed Mode (aka, SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode) will get rid of this error message.

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#103804, answer score: 15