It is so painful for me to "Ctrl+F" keys to open search or find text box in Visual Studio 2013. So how to I put this text box back to tool bar and click on it when I need?
If you look closely you will see a small folder with magnified class icon in the tool bar attached is the image.
Click on the dropdown menu next to it to the right and select what you want to add permanently to your toolbar menu.
Please note I am not talking about "Track active item in Solution Explorer".
I like that, so when I am switching editor windows, Solution Explorer automatically tracks, and made selected the item in its tree. That's cool.
Instead I am asking about the reverse automatism: When I select an item in Solution Explorer (not double click, just select), it opens and activated in the editor using a single rightest tab, in the editor pane. (usual files are stacked from left tabs).
How can I prevent this automatic opening in VS 2015?
In VS 2013 it's under Settings - Environment - Tabs and Windows - Preview Tab.
When I open a new doc, its tab label appears on the left side of the bar. How can I make it appear on the right?
For Visual Studio 2012 and later, this setting has moved to the "Tabs and Windows" section.
Updated directions are:
Click on the "Tools" menu, and select "Options".
Under the "Environment" heading in the listbox on the left, click on the "Tabs and Windows" item.
Check the box labelled "Insert new tabs to the right of existing tabs". This should be the first checkbox in the panel, in the "Tab Well" section.
To instruct Visual Studio that you want new tabs opened to the right of existing tabs:
Click on the "Tools" menu, and select "Options".
Under the "Environment" heading in the listbox on the left, click on the "Documents" tab.
Check the box labeled "Insert documents to the right of existing tabs".
In Visual Studio 2015, this option has been moved to Options --> Environment --> Tabs and Windows.
In Visual Studio 2019, this option is still under Tools->Options->Environments->Tabs and Windows, but it has been moved down. It is now placed under Group tabs by project/path:
In Visual Studio 2017 is the same like in Visual Studio 2015.
Tools->Options->Environments->Tabs and Windows
You mus check "Insert new tabs to the right of existing tabs"
Is there a way to quickly maximize (and then restore) Visual Studio 2010 panels? For instance, I'd like to temporarily maximize the Output window or unit test results window. In Eclipse, I would just double-click the window tab, but in VS, this undocks the window.
The desired behavior is: double-click to maximize the window, then double-click it again to restore the panel to its original position.
Use this keyboard shortcut: Shift-Alt-Enter
It will maximize your current panel similar to Eclipse, but it will use the full screen unfortunately, not just the whole Visual Studio window. I prefer the way Eclipse does it, but this does help in Visual Studio land.
This feature has been added to Visual Studio Productivity Power Tools 2013 ("Double click to maximize windows"), which is free to download.
This new feature allows double-clicking any window tab to maximize it to full-screen mode and restore it back to its initial docked state - without having to worry about float operations or changes to your window layout.
In Visual Studio 2010, you can double-click the title bar of a given panel to put it into float mode, then use it just like any other window (maximize, Windows 7 dock, etc.). Ctrl-double-clicking it again will turn it back into a docked panel.
You can also right-click on the title bar and select Dock as Tabbed Document to display the panel in the same way the code windows are displayed.
In Visual Studio 2017, on a focused tab
Alt + -, F
Alt + Space, X (see UPDATE)
UPDATE (Windows 10)
Win + Up
From the View menu, pick Full Screen menuitem.
Note: when you select the View menu, you will notice that the shortcut for selecting Full Screen is mentioned, Shift+Alt+Enter (which was mentioned previously in the Answers).
Platform: Visual Studio Professional 2017, Version 15.5.7 on Windows 10, 64-bit
Closest the Eclipse behavior is to follow these steps:
Right-click the window title bar, select Float
Double-click the window title to maximize
Right-click the window title, select Dock
After these steps, double-clicking and Ctrl+double-clicking the window maximizes / restores itself
Here it is as a key board shortcut for commando types:
Ctrl+Tab Switch to your desired window/panel.
Alt+- Show the dock menu.
T Choose 'Dock as tabbed document'
Right click title bar, then choose 'float', it will only get that window, not the whole panel. Then double-click to maximize.
Also, the commands are
Window.Float
Window.Dock
and you can assign them keyboard shortcuts under tools\options. So for example I mapped them to Ctrl-Shift-F7 and Ctrl-Shift-F8, and then after once maximizing the Output window, henceforth if I have the output window docked, I just focus it and then a key makes it big and other puts it back, hurray.
If you have already installed Productivity Power Tools 2017 (PPT), and the double click file tab is not working or any other feature in PPT, just reset the PPT and it should work just fine after restarting visual studio 2017.
How can I show only the icons in visual studio windows? For example, the properties bar tab shows the icon and the text "Properties". Also the toolbox tab shows the icon the text "Toolbox". I would like to see only icons on tabs.
Do you know where this setting is?
Thanks
In VS2008 you can right click the toolbox and deselect "list view". This will change the view to icon, but only for the current tab.