If I drag and drop the feature class, the data is properly represented. If I query the same data with a query layer, I only get a table, no features, no spatial reference under the table properties.
Could this mean sde is not installed properly on my instance of SQL server express?
The purpose of query layers is to view native geometry tables without installation of and registration with ArcSDE. I'm not even sure that you can change the default storage in Express databases (Personal and Workgroup don't have the same range of functionality as Enterprise ArcSDE), and if you didn't, then the SDEBINARY geometry storage would not be visible to the Query Layer interface as anything but an integer. It sounds like your install is working according to design. - V
