The other day I created a MS visual studio 2010 C# project and started coding. I saved the source frequently, but I did not select a destination to save to (just pressed ctrl+s and assumed the source was being saved). However I had to run and threw my laptop in my backpack on sleep. Unfortunately this laptop (acer aspire 5252 fyi) battery drains extremely quickly when on sleep, and eventually my computer shut off. Now I can't find my source files anywhere and I'm going crazy because I know I saved it and it's several days worth of work.
I tried doing a windows search but couldn't find the project files. I also did a little experiment - I created a new project and without saving the entire solution, I pressed ctrl+s on the source files. Save was successful, but I cannot even find the file that's open in the IDE. Even the "open containing folder option" is grayed out (see screen shot).
I really need these source files back. Obviously it's because I didn't save the solution that the source got wiped out, but where do the source files get saved temporarily before the solution is saved?
Thanks.
You are using Visual Studio's support for temporary projects. Nice feature for quicky test projects (and SO answers) but not a great way to ensure that your projects are still there after VS quits. Programming without source control is similarly inadvisable.
Tools + Options, Projects and Solutions, General. Ensure that the "Save new projects when created" option is ticked to minimize the odds that you'll forget to pick a solution folder. Triple-check that creating a new project now gives you a "Location" property in the dialog.
There is a default location for projects to be saved. That is probably where your files went.
In Visual Studio, on the menu, click Tools > Options > Projects and Solutions > General. There is a "Visual Studio projects location".
On my Windows 7 machine, the folder for Visual Studio 2010 is
C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects
Your unnamed project is probably saved with a default name like WebSite1.
If you would like to change that default location, here is some information on how to do that.
Visual Studio temporary projects are normally found in *C:\Users\"User Name"\AppData\Local\Temporary Projects* . It is a temporary folder that is deleted as soon as Visual Studio starts up.
How to save a Temporay Project from above link:
To save a temporary project
In Solution Explorer, choose the solution or project that you want to save.
On the menu bar, choose File, Save or Save As.
The Save Project dialog box opens.
In the , Name box, specify a name for the project.
In the Location box, specify where you want to save the project.
Select the Create directory for Solution check box.
Note: This check box is not available for Visual Basic web projects, Visual C# web projects, or other directory-based projects.
In the New Solution Name box, specify a name that differs from the project name.
Select the Add to Source Control check box if you want to add the solution to a version-control database or repository.
Choose the OK button.
Related
In Visual Studio 2005, when you remove a file from a C++ project (by right-clicking in the Solution Explorer and selecting "Remove"), it asks you whether you just want to delete the reference, or also delete the file itself from disk.
In Visual Studio 2010, this prompt seems to have disappeared (or I have accidentally turned it off). This means that every time I delete a file in the Solution Explorer, I have to immediately hunt it down and delete it with Windows Explorer (otherwise I'll forget and it will stay around forever). How do I get the prompt back?
I found some documentation (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0ebzhwsk%28v=vs.100%29.aspx) explaining the difference between "Remove" and "Delete", and that "Delete" doesn't exist for C++ projects (but no reason is given). Maybe it's really just not possible? If so, what an annoying regression.
You get the remove or delete file dialog only if the selected file is stored in the project folder. If the file is stored outside of the project folder the file reference is removed without dialog.
This behaviour is still the same for e.g. VS2013. I created a user voice request to change this behaviour here. IMHO your file hierarchy should not make any difference.
You can vote for the change here:
http://visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/121579-visual-studio/suggestions/9146353-remove-delete-dialog-should-show-up-when-deleting
Assuming one is using Sourcegear Vault as the source control system, you can enable the prompt by going to Tools -> Options -> Source Control -> Integration Options -> and check on "Show warning before deleting items from source control"
I've made a lot of changes (a.k.a refactoring) to my (big) visual studio solution and it appears now that vs solution structure is very different in visual studio from what it is on the disk and TFS.
Is there a way to make file system (and TFS) have the same folder names and file names as in visual studio solution with some tool or script/program/helper add-in?
This is the list of main issues:
- when I rename project visual studio does not rename folder where this project is located
- if I move project, file to different vs folder, it just happens in visual studio, but not on the disk
You can switch between logical or physical folders in the solution by clicking the "Show all files" icon (2nd top left icon in the solution pane). When not activated, you are viewing logical folders in the solution, drag and drop simply re arrange files virtually. When activated, you are viewing physical folders, drag and drop moves files on disk, using the source controller.
No there are no tools that can help you do this automatically.
There is a two step approach to solve it, made easier by installing two add-ons. I prefer to use the Team Foundation Power Tools and the Source Control Explorer Extensions.
From the Source Control Window inside Visual Studio:
Close the open solution in Visual Studio
open the Source Control window in TFS
Move the folders around to match the structure you prefer, with the mentioned add-ons you should be able to drag/drop and rename them more easily
Alternatively, do the changes on file system with the Team Foundation Power Tools explorer extensions installed:
Close the solution in Visual Studio
navigate to your workspace folder using Windows Explorer
use the TFS context menu on the folders to check-out/rename/move the items ans folders
Then re-load the solution in Visual Studio and:
Open the solution and see that a lot of projects don't load.
Highlight a project that couldn't be found
On the project properties window (ctrl-w, p) find the file path item and click the little [...] button to navigate to the new project file location for each project.
Rightclick the projects you've updated this way in the solution explorer and reload them
Rebuild your solution to verify all changes went as expected
Check-in your changes
I'm using Team Foundation Server 2010 with Visual Studio 2010.
Whenever I modify a file outside of Visual Studio, TFS doesn't seem to detect the change done to the file, and thus doesn't offer me the option to check-in the file after it has been modified.
How can this be solved?
TFS has a "Reconcile" command for this:
Open the Source Control Explorer
Right-click on the folder with the changes and choose Compare
Select the files you want to reconcile (press CTRL+A to select all files)
Click on the Reconcile button
Set the options in the Reconcile Folder Differences dialog. Make sure Files that do not have pending changes is set to Check Out
Click OK
If you have local changes the Check Out dialog will be shown. Set the preferred Lock type
Click Check Out
See also: Reconcile differences between folders
If you have a network connection to your server while you're working outside of Visual Studio, it's probably best to go ahead and check the file out before editing it, either using the tf command line client, or using the Windows Explorer shell integration that's available in the TFS Power Tools release. (Plus an increasing number of other tools have TFS integration that makes this automatic, but if you're just using notepad, this still needs to be a manual step.)
Of course, there are many times when you're working and you don't have a network connection available that allows you to check out the files.
If you know what files you've modified, you can just check them out from within Visual Studio, then you'll be able to check them back in.
If you don't know what files you've edited, you can detect the changes by running the tfpt online command (also part of the Power Tools release). This will locate the files that have been modified locally and check these files out from the server.
This worked for me, using the TFS Power Tools:
tfpt online /adds /deletes /diff /noprompt /recursive directory-name
(where directory-name is the path to the directory to be updated, otherwise it will detect changes throughout your entire TFS repository)
If you want to know what it would do without it actually making any changes, you can force it to do a dry run by adding the /preview switch.
*1- make changes outside of Visual Studio
2- go to Visual Studio and open Source Control Explorer
3- right click on the folder > "Check Out for Edit" > "Check Out"
4- right click on the same folder > "Undo Pending Changes..." > "Undo changes" > "No to All"*
I tested this workaround on a branch and it helped me a lot. But there are only new files and new folder who has to be done manually.
I recommend to create a branch before the operation. It isolates you the time of the operation.
Note: This technique does also the files identical cleanup that TFS always marks as modified.
Try this. It's some sort of workaround, but it works:
make changes outside of Visual Studio
go to Visual Studio and open Source Control Explorer
right click on the folder > "Check Out for Edit" > "Check Out"
right click on the same folder > "Undo Pending Changes..." > "Undo changes" > "No to All"
That's it. The changes are visible now.
There's also another solution to get TFS to figure out the files that have changed outside of Visual Studio:
Open the solution offline
In Solution Explorer select the solution file and then press the Go Online button ()
TFS will automatically scan the solution for changes after this.
Step one can be achieved in a number of different ways. Here are some:
Use the GoOffline Extension - very simple and effective.
If you're asked for TFS credentials when opening the solution (no automatic domain auth), then don't enter the credentials. The solution will open offline and you'll login after pressing the Go Online button
(extreme solution) Disconnect your network cable; Open the solution; Connect the network cable.
Visual Sourcesafe works like this too and the way I get VSS or TFS to notice the change is by checking the file out once inside Visual Studio.
Open Source Control and go to your TFS folder. Right-click on the folder and choose 'Compare'.
Notice that your edited files show up marked in red.
I find this is better than tfpt online which also gets you files that are not readonly and not edited.
I had this problem in the past, when my Internet was down and I worked offline, and most of my changes didn't appears in Team Explorer.
Following these steps:
First, In the solution explorer, select the folder that you want to re-conciliate (for me, it was my entire solution folder), and select Compare...
Click in Modify Filter, and in the filter text-box, you could type:
*.cs;!obj\;!bin\;!packages\;
In this example, it will include in the search only C# files and exclude in the folders: bin, obj and packages.
Notice the column Pending Change has the info whether the file is marked as edit, add, etc... or nothing...
To mark as edit (when the local item has a matching server item), select the file and choose Check out for Edit...
To mark as add (when the local item doesn't have any server item), select the file and choose Add Files
Finally, I am not sure why the projects are not listed here (after I remove *.cs filter, still doesn't show up), so rebuild the solution to make sure the projects updates as well
+ In the solution, click the connect button (if shows up) that said Go Online.
I found that in Visual Studio 2015, with the project open, Visual Studio discovered for itself that files had been modified externally, and automatically checked them out without me having to do anything. Checking in the project in the normal way saved the external modifications.
In my case, the following worked (at least the one time I tried it):
Go to the Pending Changes panel
Select View Options under either Included or Excluded changes.
Switch between Show All and Show Solution Changes
Switch back if desired
Changing the View Option appears to force a refresh of modified files.
There's a question already discussing how to add project/solution bindings to TFS, however it seems to only apply to Visual Studio 2008 (I am unable to find the "Change Source Control" dialog in VS2010).
I have a solution and source code on my local machine already in TFS, however it does not have TFS bindings (the thing that produces the padlock icon in the Visual Studio Solution Explorer and allows automatic checkout).
How can I add bindings to an existing TFS project using Visual Studio 2010?
In VS2010 check Tools>Options>Source Control and see if set to TFS. If not that might be why you don't see File->Source Control->Change Source Control.
I ran into this problem and, for me, the issue was that my solution was offline with respect to TFS. Upon trying to change source control, I received a message stating that it is already associated with source control but is offline. I placed the solution on-line, per my recollection, using the File->Source Control->Go Online menu option and this seemed to fix the problem.
Go to the source control explorer under Team Explorer, where you can see your repository. Right click on the top folder that maps to the folder on your local machine. There's an option called "Map to local folder". Map this to the folder on your local machine. This will set up all the bindings for TFS for your project.
I had the same problem and the following steps solved it for me in VS 2008.
Unfortunately, I didn't record the exact steps and don't want to add a new project to our TFS to try again, so the steps are from memory.
Go to File Menu -> Source Control -> Open from source control
Select solution file from TFS hierarchy
Accept any warning about project already being on local disc
A popup dialog comes up saying something along the lines "This solution is already under source control, but no bindings exist. Do you want to add them?"
A selector shows all projects in a grid and allows adding the required bindings. Add TFS server setting to each project (select all lines in grid at once and press a button at the top. I can't remember what it was called, but it was fairly obvious).
We use Visual Studio 2008 and Surround SCM for source control. SCM drops files into each directory named ".MySCMServerInfo" which are user specific data files that shouldn't be checked into source control. They are similar to the .scc files dropped by Visual Source Safe. We also have several WAPs (Web Application Projects) that we develop. All these .MySCMServerInfo files show up in the solution tree and the Pending Checkins window when they should not. There has to be some way to force VS to ignore files of a given extension because it ignores .scc files. How do I get VS to ignore .MySCMServerInfo files within a WAP?
I have new information about this issue. Setting the hidden bit on .MySCMServerInfo file causes Surround SCM to loose track of the modification state for files. It starts thinking files are out-of-date when they are not, and it always attemps to get new versions.
Instead, set this registry key if you're using Visual Studio 2008:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\Packages\
{8FF02D1A-C177-4ac8-A62F-88FC6EA65F57}\IgnorableFiles\.MySCMServerInfo]
Set this registry key if you're using Visual Studio 2005:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\Packages\
{8FF02D1A-C177-4ac8-A62F-88FC6EA65F57}\IgnorableFiles\.MySCMServerInfo]
These will tell Visual Studio to not display .MySCMServerInfo files within the Solution tree and the Pending Checkins view.
Using the file system hidden bit should work.
Late Answer but hopefully useful to others.
I began experiencing this problem when using Visual Studio 2015 with the new ASP.Net 5 Project templates. (I presume this is because the new templates automatically include everything in the folder rather than only showing the things that are listed in the project file).
Showing these files in the Solution explorer change be prevented by right clicking the file and selecting "Hide from Solution Explorer" but this didn't prevent SCM from including them in the Pending Check-ins Window.
The correct way to deal with this problem is:
Select the file(s) in Solution Explorer
Select the File > Source Control > Exclude from Source Control
Reference
NOTE: Right Click in the Solution Explorer DOESN'T have this option.