I don't think that's correct at all. There would be a huge performance hit.

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>AFAIK, SQL Express is different than MSDE because it runs more like a COM+ object than a true service. All of the code samples that I have seen for SQL Express include the filename(s) of the database to attach in the connection string. This leads me to believe that the server doesn't load until it is needed (and consequently unloads after it is not needed).