Starting Visual Studio from a command prompt - visual-studio

Question

I have three different versions of Visual Studio installed on my machine,
Visual Studio 2003, Visual Studio 2008, and VS2005.
How do I start a particular version of Visual Studio using a command prompt?
devenv.exe opens the latest version of Visual Studio. What should I do if I want to open Visual Studio 2003 using a command prompt?

Answer 1

Haven't tested on preceding versions - but to launch Visual Studio 2019 you can just enter start devenv to launch right away without entering into a path

Answer 2

You have to use the path to distinguish them. For instance, here is the Visual Studio 2005 command on my laptop:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"
Here's another tip: You can figure out how to run various Windows applications from the command line by finding them in the Windows Start Menu, right-clicking on the icon, select properties, and then on the Shortcut tab, look at the Target textbox. Copy that text out and usually you can use it at a console command line.

Answer 3

This answer is a different way to handle starting Visual Studio in any version of Windows, by using the Windows Key {windows logo} start to start the target application.
Pin each version to the task bar. One way is to right click an active running program and select 'Pin to Taskbar. Or find in the program manager and right click again to pin.
Pin each different version right next to the task bar. For this example pin each version in succession 2003, 2005 and finally 2008. Make sure they are next to the start button for easier index number memorization.
To launch the 2003 version hit the WindowsKey then number 1.
To launch 2005 WindowsKey 2.
To launch 2008 WindowsKey 3.
This is fast and easy and can launch multiple instances without bringing up the command console.

Answer 4

Use devenv.exe for the specific version of Visual Studio. There will be one located in the Common7\IDE folder of the install. Here are the directories as I remember for the various versions.
2008:
%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\Ide\devenv.exe
2005:
%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft visual Studio 8\Common7\Ide\devenv.exe

Answer 5

For Visual Studio on a mac, you can:
open '/Applications/Visual Studio.app' [path_to].sln
I create an alias in my bash_profile so I can just navigate to a directory and open it in VS:
echo "alias vs=\"open '/Applications/Visual Studio.app' *.sln\"" >> ~/.bash_profile

Answer 6

Here is the shortcut, You can just type devenv.exe and start visual studio

Answer 7

You can also use the "Visual Studio 2005 Command Prompt" and "Visual Studio 2008 Command Prompt" to load a version-specific command shell environment, and then run devenv. This is typically found under Start -> Programs -> Visual Studio -> Visual Studio Tools
If you can't or don't want to access it via the Start menu, you can also "load" the VS-version specific environment in a normal command shell using the following (for VS 2008,
with a default install path): (note: change x86 as appropriate for your platform)
(32 bit) %comspec% /k ""C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\vcvarsall.bat"" x86
(64 bit) %comspec% /k ""C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\vcvarsall.bat"" x86
or for VS 2008 (with default install path):
(32 bit) %comspec% /k ""C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat"" x86
(64 bit) %comspec% /k ""C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat"" x86
Each sets the environment so if you then subsequently execute devenv it'll load the correct version.

Answer 8

Put C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\Common7\IDE\ in the path of your computer.
Then open a new command prompt.
Change the directory to your project folder.
Type devenv to open the project in Visual Studio from the command prompt. This opens the project up in folder view. It has to have a .sln file to do the next part.
Click the switch views drop-down arrow and choose the .sln file.
The solution explorer will now display the solution.

Answer 9

Use an abolute path, for example, C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe.

Answer 10

1) devenv (to open VS)
2) devenv *.sln (then tab to autocomplete and enter to open VS and auto-load current solution)
By default, this only works in Developer Command Prompt.
To make it work in a normal console (I use cmder) you need to add folder path to devenv.exe to the System environment variable name Path.
For me that is this one:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\Common7\IDE
You can also use this script and save it as vs.bat and then it will find for you *.sln file in the folder and automatically open visual studio with solution loaded (as in 2.)

Answer 11

Similar question where I answered: Visual studio: How to open a specific solution directly from command line?
Essentially use OpenVSSolution
Put this helper exe somewhere in your PATH
The exe scans the current directory for a .sln file
The exe opens devenv passing in the sln file
The explanation is on here: https://davemateer.com/coding/2018/11/14/Publish-dot-net-core-console-application.html
I find this incredibly useful and is how I open all solutions.

Answer 12

Use Window Terminal (https://github.com/microsoft/terminal), run these commands in the terminal
cd your-project-folder
.\your-solution.sln

Answer 13

I tried the answer that has been accepted in this question but it didnt work for me
I was able to launch Visual studio from RUN by typing devenv.exe in it.
WIN+R didnt work for opening RUN, so in command prompt, I typed the below path in command prompt
c:\WINDOWS\system32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll`,#61

Answer 14

use this command:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe

Answer 15

You can create a bat script for any visual studio version. You can find my script below.
start /B "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"
Even, you can create an alias following this post

Answer 16

Go to your project directory in cmd. (ex. cd <=FOLDER_PATH=>)
type code and press enter.

Answer 17

To open it with Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Desktop do -
%comspec% /k ""C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\Tools\VsDevCmd.bat""
%comspec% is:
C:\Users\Admin>echo %comspec%
C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe
Or just search "developer" in the Windows 8 Start Search "Apps" menu, and it will lead you to "Developer Command Prompt for VS2012".