I really don't like the VS2008 Start Page. I don't need the RSS reader, Getting started or Headlines. The only thing useful is "Recent Projects"
Is there a way to customize it or replace with a better one?
It will be nice that the page contains Favorites Projects and Recent projects.
P.S. I know that I can disabled it or replace it with other web page, just looking for a good productivity tip.
Here's an article with a lot of detail on how to precisely customize the start page. Unfortunately, it looks to be a rather arduous process. But hey, if you have the time...
Customizing the Visual Studio .NET 2003 Start Page
Goto Tools > Options > Environment > Startup and pick the best option you like
One suggestion would be to follow the steps here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2008/01/03/did-you-know-how-to-customize-what-visual-studio-opens-to-or-how-to-make-the-start-page-not-show-up-when-vs-opens.aspx
You can also check out the useful information here. Aso for suggested things, check out this post.
The link posted by Kyralessa is a complete answer to your original question. Unfortunately, it does look like a complicated procedure.
I'll just add that if you're worried about any performance impact associated with fetching the RSS feed, you can enter a non-existent URL such as http://localhost:12345 that will fail quickly and reduce the amount of content needing to be rendered. In that way, you could keep the 'Recent projects' panel.
I too am not a fan of the startup page showing latest articles and news from MSDN.
I wouldn't mind glancing through a few articles, but the RSS feed is mega slow and the wait really slows down productivity, especially if I find myself opening and close it all the time.
Visual Studio will load much faster when the start page is disabled.
Here's how to do it:
Go to Tools => Options
Select the Startup child node under the Environment node.
Un-tick the auto loading of news articles
Clear the url box ...just to be sure ;)
Select "Show empty environment" from the combo box
Now, marvel at the dramatic speed boost to Visual studio 2008.
Related
I am looking for free extension that has one simple functionality which is sidebar file navigation like is in SuperCharger or Resharper (see attached screenshots). Sadly both of them are paid :-( Does anyone have a good alternative?
Visual studio has Class View window for a quite a while.
You can try Productivity Power Tools, with it, you can:
Expand code files to navigate to its classes, expand classes to navigate to their members, and so on (C# and VB only)
Search your solution, all the way down to class members
Filter your solution or projects to see just opened files, unsaved files, and so on
View related information about classes and members (such as references or callers/callees for C#)
Preview images by hovering over them, or preview rich information by hovering over code items
We've also added support for multiple selection and drag & drop.
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=VisualStudioProductTeam.ProductivityPowerTools
I know its an old question, but as i was looking for an alternative to supercharger // Resharper (for the navigation only) few days ago, and had looked on stack before doing my search (and as I found the answers not exactly what i was looking for) ...
After testing a few extensions I finally found a good alternative to those two paid solutions :
https://github.com/sboulema/CodeNav/blob/master/README.md
You can also just download it from the extensions menu , search for CodeNav .
Best.
In Visual Studio, you can expand and collapse code without using regions, for example in a code-behind page you can collapse methods, etc... And in an ASPX page you can collapse tags, tags, etc...
It's useful when you have a long page and you want to focus your development on a specific part. What's cool about it too is that you can close the file and reopen it and the state of the expanded/collapsed blocks is saved exactly as you left it.
Except in one instance. That state is not saved for tags in ASPX pages, where it would be most useful.
I know there are some good plugins out there for VS but I couldn't find one that addresses this issue.
Has anybody got a solution?
Before you mention custom controls, they are not always convenient or feasible when trying to keep a page short and I don't consider this a solution to this problem.
Looks like this issue will stay unresolved at this time.
I opened a bug report on Microsoft Connect, if this issue is important to you please vote it up!
https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/613221/expanded-collapsed-state-not-saved-after-closing-file
I'm trying to learn TFSBuild 2010 and workflows and I found using the designer was very confusing. Then I realized from seeing screenshots of other peoples workflows, my designer is clearly messed up. Take a look at this:
http://imgur.com/uoKJ8.png
Something is very strange here. As I click on each task the borders for that task show up but this can get extremely confusing when there is a lot going on.
Yes, your designer is messed up. Why? Dunno.
First thing I'd do is update your graphics card. WPF is sensitive to bad video drivers.
Second is to go to Tools-Options and check out the Workflow options. You can change the "theme" of the workflow there. Change the theme, restart it and see if that makes a difference. If it works, you can try going back to the other theme.
Lastly, I'd definitely open a Connect on this. Check for the link under the Help menu.
Could it be that the XAML file for your workflow has invalid markup and is corrupted? Does it look the same when you create a new/empty workflow?
I'd say that if its happening for all workflows, including new ones, then you probably should try posting on a Microsoft help forum like this one.
Can you show your XAML file? Seems that it has more to do with the rendering of the Rehoster.
What's with all the spam (free trials and so on from Component One & Telerik among others) in the VS 2010 Extensions Manager. Without going to the website there is no way to know whether a listing is free or trialware so, for me, the entire user experience of the Extensions Manager is ruined.
Anyone else finding this? Is there a way of suppressing these?
Alex...
One thing that helps slightly is to browse Tools specifically. I tried adding things like -trial or -componentone, but it seems that the extension manager/gallery ignores the -. I'll send an email to some people to see if that can be fixed.
If you go to the visual studio gallery web page, ( http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ ), on the left you can click on Categories, versions, and so forth that will filter out usless addin's.
For instance, I filter on VS 2010, and Free. This takes out paid, and Free Trial, such as the jerks at ComponentOne and Telerik.
Try: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/site/search?f%5B0%5D.Type=CostCategory&f%5B0%5D.Value=0&f%5B0%5D.Text=Free&f%5B1%5D.Type=VisualStudioVersion&f%5B1%5D.Value=10.0&f%5B1%5D.Text=Visual%20Studio%202010
I've looked around, and not found much documentation on this, so I thought I'd ask where all the experts hang out.
I would like to create a new start page, with bug tracking and source control interfaces, rather than the standard MSDN feed. I seem to remember that one can do more than just supply a different URL, but can actually implement a component to run as the start page, which needn't use web content. I may be wrong. Can anyone please give me some tips?
You can do is to create a DTE ToolWindow (read: Creating a ToolWindow hosting a .NET user control) and host your controls there, then its pretty easy to create an addin that will show the tool window as a document at runtime. (The same way that the start-up page looks)
Go to Tools > Options > Environment > Startup and put your RSS URL in the Start Page news channel field.
That should give you enough, but if you want to do more you can select open home page in the at startup dropdown and point it at a URL with the appropriate content. If you use an intranet with Windows authentication you could display user specific stuff.
This will be completely customizable in VS 2010. You'll be able to do anything you want to on the start page.