Say I have one instance of Visual Studio running where I have opened few windows like Unit Test Explorer, Resharper TODO explorer and so on and to take advantage of multiple monitors I have moved these windows out of visual studio to different monitors.
Now if I open different solutions in new instances of Visual studio (say from Visual Studio > Recent items jump lists) all the new instances also open with similar windows in each instance, even though I don't really need those in those new instances. These clutter my work space and I have hunt and close these one by one.
This continues until I close all the news Visual studio instances, close all the windows on the first one instance I had and close that instance as well.
I understand this behavior stems from the fact that the new instances inherit the opened windows etc. configuration from the first opened instance.
Is there any way to prevent the same windows from opening on subsequent instances of visual studio?
Or may be a configuration to launch visual studio with default windows?
Or quick way to kill all these unwanted windows?
I looked through the VS > Options > Environment > Startup and Tabs and Windows etc., devenv.exe command lines but don't find anything useful.
While the solution provided by #Richard to establish your "baseline" window layout, then save that (Window | Save Window Layout) and apply the layout using Window | Apply Windows Layout | name or the assigned shortcut helped as a workaround, I see Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 now comes with a preview feature, Autohide tool windows at startup,
that addresses this problem.
When enabled, any new instances of Visual Studio open only Solution Explorer and not any other windows opened on previous instances. This also improves startup performance noticeably.
Related
In Windows Explorer when I double-click on any Visual Studio file (*.cs, *.csproj, etc.), it's opening an old version of VS instead of the latest one (VS 2017). And VS has associations with too many file types.
How can I change the default Visual Studio (for all those files that VS can handle)?
There is a similar old question about Visual Studio 2008 (Move file associations from Visual Studio 2005 to 2008) but the solution in there doesn't work anymore (there is no "Restore File Associations" button on the settings of Visual Studio 2017).
Each version of Visual Studio registers itself in the Set Default Programs panel of the Control Panel.
Go to Control Panel\Programs\Default Programs
Then choose Set Default Programs:
In there you can simply choose the Visual studio version of your choice and then click the button Set this program as default in order to associate every file type that VS handles.
Or you might prefer to click the button Choose defaults for this program to review the current associations of those file types and change only the ones you want.
Yet another in a long list of previously working-just-fine things which Microsoft have managed totally #$#%# up. If I try to change defaults the 'right' way I get this kind of thing:
i.e. completely ignored. The only way I've managed to solve it is by removing the file association entirely through the registry. Let's take .asm as an example:
Open Registry Editor / "regedit.exe"
Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.asm\OpenWithProgIds
Delete any Visual Studio values you see
From there, you can (finally) open files with whatever you choose instead of having the association clamped to Visual Studio:
For the record, I believe this to be a problem with Windows 10. Not with Visual Studio. See: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-files/cant-change-default-programs-in-windows-10/229fc3a9-25c9-433b-a333-5806bc5090db
On the file you will always open with vs17, click right and choose open with and there choose another app. On win10 it pop out a dialog with some proposals. If vs17 is there, choose your favorite and activate the always open with. then ok and your done.
Please tell me how to fully remove Visual Studio with all components and also remove registry(Any batch file or any Command which runs from Command prompt)
Go to Programs and Features (in Control Panel)
click on 'Microsoft Visual Studio {your distribution e.g. Pro/Ent etc} 20XX'
click on Change
click Uninstall
Do the same for all other existing Microsoft Visual Studio components in that list.
EDIT:
based on your comment below, I'd suggest you to use Windows 7 Manager or Windows 10 Manager based on your OS, its quite handy and fast, it even cleans registry as well. I've personally had good experience with it.
I'm trying to open two projects in two different windows but every time I double click an other solution, it closes the old project and then it opens the new project in that window. I mean I could do this with VS 2010 but with VS2013, I can't. How do you open multiple projects in different windows ?
EDITS: maybe I can't explain myself well. I want to open two different solutions in two different windows. this will make me able to work on many projects at the same time.
SOLVED:This issue disappeared as I reinstalled the OS!
If you have Windows 8, you just need to search for Visual Studio in the start menu, then right click and choose Open new window. It will open another instance of Visual Studio.
Start visual studio as many times as needed and open each project in each instance of visual studio (file -> Open -> Project/Solution )
in VS13, when you open source code, it opens it in tabs, you can see the name of the tabs right at the top of the window.(the name of the source code will be there) just drag it and move it off Visual studios, somewhere over your desktop and it will open in a new window. I believe that will work. Please let me know if this works, i know i have documentation on viewing tabs in VS, let me find it while you test this :)
if you want a way around opening another instance of VS, open the project by locating it For instance C:\Users\Jonathan\Documents\Visual Studio 2013\Projects thats my default location, open the project there, it opens VS as a new instance
Here is how the problem was solved!
I have created another user in Windows OS
Log on with the new user credentials
Open Visual Studio
The issue remains when I log with another user, that is why I would say it is due to current user settings.
My installation of VS 2010 does not appear to be saving settings in the Environment section (Recent files, show status bar checkbox, etc). Other settings do save properly, though (Auto Recover, etc).
Any ideas?
My Environment:
Windows XP
Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, Team Explorer, TFS2010 Power Tools
Visual Studio 2008 and 2005 installed as well
Works on my XP laptop. The one difference between the two that I can think of is that I added the VS Theme extension on the workstation that I am having an issue on. Don't know if that fouled anything up in the registry.
When I modify the settings (like the number of items shown in Window menu input), the settings are not saved to the registry (HKEY_CURRENT_USER/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/VisualStudio/10.0/General/WindowMenuItemCount)
The fact that it's not saved to the registry would seem to indicate a larger problem than just VS. I would recommend using a tool like Process Monitor to see if it's attempting to write to the registry. Add a filter for devenv.exe and search for the registry key you're looking for. In this case, immediately after clicking okay after you set the number of "Recent Files - items shown in Window menu" in Tools->Options->Environment->General, you should see a write (Success) in the registry under that key (WindowMenuItemCount).
I have a pre-alpha GUI program that I'm dogfooding and want to run under the debugger (for when things go wrong ;), but I don't want to have to launch a new copy of Visual Studio for each instance of the application. Can this be done?
I don't expect to actually be debugging more than one instance at a time, but I still want the debugger in the look for all of them. Also, I'm starting the application a few dozen time a day, so it would have to be easy to do.
You can start an instance of the same, or different projects multiple times in one instance of Visual Studio. Here is how: Right click on any project in Solution Explorer, go to the Debug context menu item, and click Start new instance.
You can view and manipulate all your running processes from the Processes window (menu Debug → Windows → Processes). The menu item (and the Processes window) is only available when the application is running (under Visual Studio).
This can be done.
If you have the Professional version of Visual Studio, you can use it to attach to each instance of the application that you have open.
First, compile the application with debug information so that it can actually be debugged.
Then launch your application. Open as many instances as you need.
In Visual Studio, click menu Debug → Attach to Process.... Select the process(es) you want to debug. You can select more than one from the list by Shift + clicking or Ctrl + clicking them.
I've just tested this to make sure. One instance of Visual Studio (at least Visual Studio 2008) can debug multiple instances of the same application.
If you don't have the Professional version I don't think this can be done. I'm absolutely sure the Express version can not attach to processes. I'm not sure about what "paid" editions can attach to processes though it is possible to do.