Hidden Features of Visual Studio (2005-2008)?

Question

Visual Studio is such a massively big product that even after years of working with it I sometimes stumble upon a new/better way to do things or things I didn't even know were possible.

For instance-

• Crtl + R, Ctrl + W to show white spaces. Essential for editing Python build scripts.

• Under "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\Text Editor" Create a String called Guides with the value "RGB(255,0,0), 80" to have a red line at column 80 in the text editor.

What other hidden features have you stumbled upon?

Answer 1

The most important feature I can't live without is Visual Studio 2008. :P

Answer 2

The Debugger :-) Beats Notepad by miles.

Answer 3

A lot of people don't know or use the debugger to it's fullest - I.E. just use it to stop code, but right click on the red circle and there are a lot more options such as break on condition, run code on break.

Also you can change variable values at runtime using the debugger which is a great feature - saves rerunning code to fix a silly logic error etc.

Answer 4

Sara Ford has this market cornered.

http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/default.aspx

More Visual Studio tips and tricks than you can shake a stick at.

Some others:

• The Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 3-month trial editions are fully-functional, and can be used indefinitely (forever) by setting the system clock back prior to opening VS. Then, when VS is opened, set the system clock forward again so your datetimes aren't screwed up.
• But that's really piracy and I can't recommend it, especially when anybody with a .edu address can get a fully-functional Pro version of VS2008 through Microsoft Dreamspark.
• You can use Visual Studio to open 3rd-party executables, and browse embedded resources (dialogs, string tables, images, etc) stored within.
• Debugging visualizers are not exactly a "hidden" feature but they are somewhat neglected, and super-useful, since in addition to using the provided visualizers you can roll your own for specific data sets.
• Debugger's "Set Instruction Pointer" or "Set Next Statement" command.
• Conditional breakpoints (as KiwiBastard noted).
• You can use Quickwatch etc. to evaluate not only the value of a variable, but runtime expressions around that variable.

Answer 5

• The memory windows, very useful if you're doing low level stuff.
• Control + K , Control + F - Format selection - great for quickly making code neat
• Regions, some love them, some hate them, most don't even know they exist
• Changing variables in debug windows during execution
• Tracepoints
• Conditional break points
• Hold down Alt and drag for 'rectangular' selection.
• Control+B for a breakpoint, to break at function
• Control+I for incremental search, F3 to iterate

Answer 6

CTRL-D then type ">of " then file name. If the standard toolbar is up crtl-d put you in find combobox and there is now a dropdown with files in your solution that match the start of the filename you typed. Pick one and it will open it. This alternative to the open filedialog is awesome for big solutions with lots of directories.

Answer 7

Here's an old blog article on some of the hidden debugger features in the expression evaluators.

Answer 8

CTRL-K, CTRL-D

Reformat Document!
This is under the VB keybindings, not sure about C#

Answer 9

I'm not sure if it's "hidden", but not many people know about it -- pseudoregisters. Comes very handy when debugging, I've @ERR, hr in my watch window all the time.

Answer 10

Sara Ford covers lots of lovely tips: http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/tags/Visual+Studio+2008+Tip+of+the+Day/default.aspx

But some of my favourites are Code Snippets, Ctrl + . to add a using <Namespace> or generate a method stub. I can't live without that.

Check out a great list in the Visual Studio 2008 C# Keybinding poster: http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/details.aspx?familyid=E5F902A8-5BB5-4CC6-907E-472809749973&amp;displaylang=en

Answer 11

Ctrl-F10: run to cursor during debugging. Took me ages to find this, and I use it all the time;

Ctrl-E, Ctrl-D: apply standard formatting (which you can define).

Answer 12

Drag-drop text selections to the Watch window while in the debugger.

Answer 13

Incremental search: While having a source document open hit (CTRL + I) and type the word you are searching for you can hit (CTRL + I) again to see words matching your input.

Answer 14

How many times do you debug an array in a quickwatch or a watch window and only have visual studio show you the first element? Add ",N" to the end of the definition to make studio show you the next N items as well. IE "this->m_myArray" becomes "this->m_array,5".

Answer 15

CTRL+SHIFT+V will cycle through your clipboard, Visual Studio keeps a history of copies.

Answer 16

My favorite is CTRL+SHIFT+V, which will cycle through your clipboard history (Visual Studio keeps track of every time you copy).

Answer 17

Make a selection with ALT pressed - selects a square of text instead of whole lines.

Answer 18

Ctrl-Minus, Ctrl-Plus, navigates back and forward where you've been recently (only open files, though).

Answer 19

I always map control + alt + f4 to documents.CloseAllWindows in options>environment>keyboard.

Is somewhat more intuitive than using the mouse.

Answer 20

You can drag code to the ToolBox. Try it!

Answer 21

Shift+Alt+F10 brings up the built in refactoring menu. Great for adding method stubs from interfaces, and adding Using statements automatically for specific classes.

Answer 22

Press the F8 key to cycle through search results. (Shift+F8 for reverse direction)

Hit F12 to go to definition of variable.

Shift + alt + arrow keys = Block select!

Answer 23

I think the ability to right click on a Stored Procedure in Server Explorer and debug..

Answer 24

When developing C++, Ctrl-F7 compiles the current file only.

Answer 25

Tracepoints!

Put a breakpoint on a line of code. Bring up the Breakpoints Window and right click on the new breakpoint. Select 'When Hit...'. By ticking the 'Print a message' check box Visual Studio will print out a message to the Debug Output every time the line of code is executed, rather than (or as well as) breaking on it. You can also get it to execute a macro as it passes the line.

Answer 26

Not exactly a hidden feature, but one thing I've done is add a "Start Without Debugging" button next to my "Start With Debugging" button. Just click the down arrow at the right end of the toolbar. Then select "Add or Remove buttons". Then Customize. In the commands tab select the Debug category. Find the Start Without Debugging command and drag it to where you want it on the toolbar.

Answer 27

My best feature is one I had to make myself.. It's a cpp/h flipper. If you are looking at the .h file, and hit this macro, (or its keyboard shortcut), it will open the cpp file, and vice-versa.

I can provide the source if anyone wants it.

Answer 28

Visual Assist, in general, while a bit OT for this question, is a great app and really helps with the day-to-day running of visual studio. Their open-any-file and find-any-symbol windows are particularly awesome.

Answer 29

Enable Intellisense in Skin Files

1. Go to Tools->Options menu.
2. Pick Text Editor -> File Extesion fom a tree at the left part of Options dialog.
3. Type skin in Extesion text box.
4. Select User Control Editor from Editor dropdown.
5. Click Add and then Ok to close dialog and re-open your skin files.

Answer 30

Copy-paste from a Watch window of an object's expanded properties in the debugger into Excel will perserve the tabular format and persist the data after the debug session is over.

Answer 31

Discovered today:

Ctrl + .

Brings up the context menu for refactoring (then one that's accessible via the underlined last letter of a class/method/property you've just renamed - mouse over for menu or "Ctrl" + ".")

Answer 32

Click an identifier (class name, variable, etc) then hit F12 for "Go To Definition". I'm always amazed how maybe people I watch code that use the slower right-click -> "Go To Definition" method.

EDIT: Then you can use Ctrl+- [control minus] to jump back to where you were.

Answer 33

• Ctrl-K, Ctrl-C to comment a block of text with // at the start
• Ctrl-K, Ctrl-U to uncomment a block of text with // at the start

Can't live without it! :)

Answer 34

• Ctrl-K, Ctrl-C to comment a block of text with // at the start
• Ctrl-K, Ctrl-U to uncomment a block of text with // at the start

Can't live without it! :)

Answer 35

CTRL + Shift + U -> Uppercase highlighted section. CTRL + U -> Lowercase the highlighted section Great for getting my SQL Statements looking just right when putting them into string queries.

Also useful for code you've found online where EVERYTHING IS IN CAPS.

Answer 36

There is an article about this. It seems to be a lengthy collection.

Answer 37

Print the shortcuts from the Microsoft page and put them next to you. Try to learn a new one every day. You'll find all shortcuts already mentioned here + lots more. Some very useful contain formatting a code block, commenting, navigate between pages,...

Get Resharper, it's a plugin which whill greatly increase your efficiency. If you use Resharper, you can find a list with shortcuts.

Answer 38

To auto-sync current file with Solution Explorer. So don't have to look where the file lives in the project structure

Tools -> Options -> Projects and Solutions -> "Track Active Item in Solution Explorer"

Answer 39

You can use the following codes in the watch window.

@err - display last error
@err,hr - display last error as an HRESULT
@exception - display current exception

Answer 40

Stopping the debugger from stepping into trivial functions.

When you’re stepping through code in the debugger, you can spend a lot of time stepping in and out of functions you’re not particularly interested in, with names such as GetID(), or std::vector<>(), to pick a C++ example. You can use the registry to make the debugger ignore these.

For Visual Studio 2005, you have to go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio \8.0\NativeDE\StepOver and add string values containing regular expressions for each function or set of functions you wish to exclude; e.g.

std\:\:vector.*\:\:.*
TextBox\:\:GetID

You can also override these for individual exceptions. For instance, suppose you did want to step into the vector class’s destructor:

std\:\:vector.*\:\:\~.*=StepInto

You can find details for other versions of Visual Studio at http://blogs.msdn.com/andypennell/archive/2004/02/06/69004.aspx

Answer 41

T4 (Text Template Transformation Toolkit). T4 is a code generator built right into Visual Studio

Answer 42

To display any chunk of data as an n-byte "array", use the following syntax in Visual Studio's QuickWatch window:

variable, n

For example, to view a variable named foo as a 256-byte array, enter the following expression in the QuickWatch window:

foo, 256

This is particularly useful when viewing strings that aren't null-terminated or data that's only accessible via a pointer. You can use Visual Studio's Memory window to achieve a similar result, but using the QuickWatch window is often more convenient for a quick check.

Answer 43

Here is the Macro source for my aspx/aspx.cs flipper. It works in 2005, but it may have issues in 08.. I'm not sure... This was taken from my other cpp/h flipper, so there might be some clean up needed to make it the best it could be. I'm not paid to write Macros, so I have to blast though them as quickly as possible when I need one.

    Sub OpenASPOrCS()
    'DESCRIPTION: Open .aspx file if in .cs file, open .cs file if in .aspx file
    On Error Resume Next

    ' Get current doc path
    Dim FullName
    FullName = LCase(ActiveDocument.FullName)
    If FullName = "" Then
        MsgBox("Error, not a .cs or asp file!")
        Exit Sub
    End If

    ' Get current doc name
    Dim DocName
    DocName = ActiveDocument.Name

    Dim IsCSFile
    IsCSFile = False
    Dim fn
    Dim dn
    If (Right(FullName, 3) = ".cs") Then
        fn = Left(FullName, Len(FullName) - 3)
        dn = Left(DocName, Len(DocName) - 3)
        IsCSFile = True
    ElseIf ((Right(FullName, 5) = ".aspx") Or (Right(FullName, 5) = ".ascx")) Then
        fn = FullName + ".cs"
        dn = DocName + ".cs"
    Else
        MsgBox("Error, not a .cs, or an asp file!")
        Exit Sub
    End If

    Dim doc As EnvDTE.Documents

    DTE.ItemOperations.OpenFile(fn)
    doc.DTE.ItemOperations.OpenFile(fn)

    If Err.Number = 0 Then
        Exit Sub
    End If

    ' First check to see if the file is already open and activate it
    For Each doc In DTE.Documents()
        If doc.Name = dn Then
            doc.Active = True
            Exit Sub
        End If
    Next

End Sub

Answer 44

I updated my code flipper, I posted earlier. I added support for ASP Controls.

Larry

Answer 45

The Open button in the File Open dialog has a little down arrrow next to it. Click that and you get the "Open With" option which includes the Binary Editor. As a systems-type guy, I find it quite valuable, but most of my colleagues hadn't known about it until I showed them.

Answer 46

TAB key feature.

1. If you know snippet key name, write and click double Tab. for example: Write

   foreach

and then click tab key twice to

foreach (object var in collection_to_loop)
{

}

2. If you write any event, write here

        Button btn = new Button();
        btn.Click +=

and then click tab key twice to

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
        Button btn = new Button();
        btn.Click += new EventHandler(btn_Click);     
}    
void btn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
        throw new Exception("The method or operation is not implemented.");
}

btn_Click function write automatically

Answer 47

Ctrl+L deletes the current selected line. This is an awesome time saver (if used responsibly of course!!!)

Answer 48

Ctrl-M + Ctrl-L Toggle Collapse All - Expand All

Answer 49

Re: Stopping the debugger from stepping into trivial functions.

In C#, you can also add an attribute [DebuggerStepThrough] (using System.Diagnostics) to a method. This causes the debugger to, ironically, not step through the method.

Answer 50

Document Outline in the FormsDesigner (CTRL + ALT + T)

Fast control renaming, ordering and more!

Answer 51

Custom IntelliSense dropdown height, for example displaying 50 items instead of the default which is IMO ridiculously small (8).

(To do that, just resize the dropdown next time you see it, and Visual Studio will remember the size you selected next time it opens a dropdown.)

Answer 52

Ctrl-T swaps the last two letters. For example, "swithc" -> "switch".

Answer 53

Reference tag of Visual Studio 2008 for JavaScript IntelliSense is a brand new hidden feature. Especially jQuery IntelliSense is a devastating!

Answer 54

Line transpose, Shift-Alt-T
Swaps two line (current and next) and moves cursor to the next line. I'm lovin it. I've even written a macro which changed again position by one line, executed line transpose and changed line position again so it all looking like I swapping current line with previous (Reverse line transpose).

Word transpose, Shift-Ctrl-T

Answer 55

Ctrl+Shift+L deletes the current line (without cutting it to the clipboard)

Answer 56

You can drag down the little gray box above the vertical scrollbar to split the window into two views of the same file, which can be scrolled independently - great if you're comparing two parts of the same file.

Answer 57

CTRL-G for jumping to a specific line number. Saves a few seconds when you've got a line number in a large code file.

Answer 58

View, Code Definition Window.

The Code Definition Window shows the definition of the currently selected identifier (If it's in your solution, it'll show your sourced; otherwise, it'll extract metadata, like right-click, Go To Definition)

Answer 59

I see that lot of us are posting shortcuts. I have printed this poster, it's very helpful to learn those shortcuts - nowadays I look very rarely at the poster 'cause I've learned most of them :)

Link for VS posters:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&amp;FamilyID=c15d210d-a926-46a8-a586-31f8a2e576fe

My favourites are Refactoring ones (CTRL-R + Something)

Answer 60

View, Other Windows, Object Test Bench

The object test bench can be used to execute code at design-time.

You can right-click on a type in Class View, click Create Instance, and select a constructor. You can then supply values for its parameters, if any, and the instance will show up in the Object Test Bench.

You can also call static methods by right-clicking a type and clicking Invoke Static Method.

In the Object Test Bench, you can right-click on an object to call methods, and you can hover over it and see its structure (like you can when debugging). You can also assign to and interact with these variables in the Immediate window, also at design time.

This feature can be useful when writing a library. Please note that to use this, your solution must be compile first.

Answer 61

I wanted to talk about comment (Ctrl + k, Ctrl + c) and uncomment (Ctrl + k, Ctrl + u) shortcuts but a Bratt (:p) already mentioned them.

How about the Ctrl + k, Ctrl + d shortcut, very convenient to format markup (ASP.NET, HTML) and JavaScript code!

Answer 62

I don't know how unknown most people consider them to be, but I don't think that a lot of people use snippets.

I discovered them a while back and then found that they were customizable by editing the xml in the Visual Studio Program Files directory. They make it super easy to add a lot of code quickly.

Also, to save time when using snippets make sure you hit tab twice and not try to do everything through the right click menu.

Answer 63

One that I only just discovered. When dealing with COM it's possible to lookup a brief message from the cryptic hexadecimal error number using a tool called errlook.exe.

The useful tool is located in your VS\Common7\Tools directory.

Answer 64

.NET debugger allows you to give objects identifiers, and to refer them via those identifiers later during the session. To do so, you right-click on the variable (or expression) referencing the object in Autos/Locals/Watch window, or in the tooltip, and select "Create Object ID". IDs are sequential integer numbers, starting from 1, and suffixed by "#" - e.g 1# will be the first ID you create.

After the ID is created, if the object is associated with a given ID, it is displayed in parentheses.

You can use 1# to reference the object by ID anywhere you can normally use expressions - in Watch window, in condition of a conditional breakpoint, and so on. It's most handy when you want to set a breakpoint on a method of some particular object only - if you can first track the object creation, or some other place where this particular object is referenced, you just create the ID for it, and then set a new breakpoint with condition such as this==1#.

Answer 65

Dynamic XSLT Intellisense

A very little known fact is that Visual Studio 2008 does support real XSLT intellisense - not a static XSLT schema-based one, but real dynamic intellisense enabling autocompletion of template names, modes, parameter/variable names, attribute set names, namespace prefixes etc.

For all versions of VS I like

Ctrl + Shift + V

for copying data in clipboard cycle.

Answer 66

Here's something I learned (for C#):

You can move the cursor to the opening curly brace from the closing curly brace by pressing Control + ].

I learned this on an SO topic that's a dupe of this one:

“Hidden Secrets” of the Visual Studio .NET debugger?

Answer 67

I don't use it often, but I do love:

ctrl-alt + mouse select

To select in a rectangular block, to 'block' boundaries.

As noted in comments,

alt + mouse select

Does just a plain rectangular block.

Answer 68

I don't know how 'hidden' this is, but some newew people may not know about coniditonal breakpoints.

Set a breakpoint, then right click it, and choose Condition, then enter an expression like:

(b == 0)

And it will only fire when that is true. Very useful when trying to debug a certain stage of a loop.

Answer 69

There is this blog on MSDN thats got some nice tips and tricks

http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/tags/Visual+Studio+2008+Tip+of+the+Day/default.aspx

Answer 70

The existence of the Resharper add-in. It makes working with Visual Stupidio less of a pain :)

It's not really a hidden feature, but worth mention nonetheless as it comes with tons of these tricks and hotkeys.

Answer 71

Vertical selection with Ctrl-Left Click is pretty useful sometimes...

Answer 72

Shift + Delete to cut whatever line the cursor is on.

I use this all the time to delete whole lines of code.

Answer 73

Mouse Left Click resets your cursor to the position your pointer is currently hovering. Very useful for navigating through Visual Studio.

Answer 74

• Vertical split of the window using "New Window" and "New Vertical Tab Group" combination.

There is only horizontal split in VS by default, but trick with window duplication allows to use vertical split too.

• Vertical selection is good (it accessible with keyboard too: Alt+Shift+[Ctrl]+Arrows). But sometimes I need to use Vertical Copy/Cut and Paste. VS is smart enough to handle this correctly.

• There are also very useful features: Go Next/Prev Scope (Alt+Down/Up), Go to Implementation (Alt+G), but they are a part of the Visual Assist X plug-in.

Answer 75

In the watch window, you can view the current exception even if you have no variable to hold it by adding a watch on $exception

Answer 76

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. I find the ability record and play back a series of actions very, very helpful sometimes. Like if I'm applying some repetitive action to a few lines in a text file.

For example

Ctrl+Shift+R (start recording macro)

perform a series of keystrokes

Ctrl+Shift+R (stop recording macro)

later....

Ctrl+Shift+P (play back keystrokes)

This approach is ideal for a short, one time manipulations. If it's something more involved or needed more than once, I'll write a script.

Answer 77

I just wanted to copy that code without the comments.

So, the trick is to simply press the Alt button, and then highlight the rectangle you like.(e. g. below).

protected void GridView1_RowCommand(object sender, GridViewCommandEventArgs e)
    {
        //if (e.CommandName == "sel")
        //{
        //    lblCat.Text = e.CommandArgument.ToString();
        //}
    }

In the above code if I want to select :

e.CommandName == "sel"

lblCat.Text = e.Comman

Then I press ALt key and select the rectangle and no need to uncomment the lines.

Check this out.

Answer 78

Request: Anyone know how to shorten paths in the find window to be rooted at my solution folder instead of the drive? They're just too long.

Answer 79

Middle Mouse Button Click on the editor tab closes the tab.

Answer 80

After having read through all these marvelous (and some repetitive) posts, I have some to add that I don't think I saw:

CTRL+Z = undo

CTRL+Y = redo

;-)

Also, don't forget to modify the keyboard shortcuts! Tools > Options > Environment > Keyboard

LOTS of goodies! I have F9 == stepinto, f10 == step over and f11 == step out. VERY useful.

Another not cited that I use somewhat often (although most people probably have a toolbar with this button): f6 == Build Solution.

Enjoy!

Answer 81

Pseudovariables in the debugger: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms164891.aspx

$exception: avoids the need to give your exceptions names (and cause variable not referenced warnings).

$user: tells you which user is running the application...sometimes useful when trying to diagnose permission issues.

Answer 82

How about Ctrl + C to copy the current line to the clipboard without doing any range selection. This is sooooo... simple and useful.

Answer 83

Just found out back and forward buttons on my mouse moves back or forward one document.

Think I was wrong about this one. Only happens when searched for stuff.

Answer 84

I accidentally found this one just now. When you are anywhere on a line and press Ctrl + Enter, it will insert a new line above the current line and move the cursor there.

Also, if you press Ctrl + Shift + Enter, it will insert a new line below the current line and move the cursor there (similar to End, Enter)

Answer 85

Ctrl + Shift + F brings up "search solution" dialog and lists all the results in a nice navigable way, rather than visiting each result. Not only it's easier to use, it's also useful because it doesn't tamper with your search scope defaults you use with regular search.

Answer 86

I'm sure everyone knows this, it's not just VS, you can do it almost everywhere. If you press Ctrl + left arrow/right arrow you will go to the next/last word word. You can also Ctrl + Shift + left/right arrow to select whole words at a time.

Answer 87

Close all documents other than the one your on by right clicking the doc's tab and selecting "Close All But This." You can do this in many other IDEs and browsers as well. Not a big feature but I find that I use it 10+ times a day. This feature was hidden from me for many years. I should map it to a keyboard shortcut :p

Answer 88

Ctrl + Delete deletes the whole word (forward)

Ctrl + Backspace deletes the whole word (backward)

The following is well known but am I wrong saying it hasn't been listed yet ?

Ctrl + Shift + Space inside the parentheses of a method call gives you the parameter info.

Answer 89

Navigating around the references of a symbol in VS 2010: 1. Place your cursor at the symbol to high light all references 2. Ctrl - Alt - Up/Down to navigate backward/toward reference.

^_^

Answer 90

Ever want to see all the implementations of one interface member? Use "Call Hierarchy"!

Answer 91

Ever want to look for a function in your current viewed file but there are too many member to browse? Need a filter? Then, the Navigate box is what you need. You activate it by Ctrl-, (comma).

Answer 92

During debugging, Select an identifier or expressing and drag it to the watch window.
Beats having to write it from scratch :)

Answer 93

The features I like the most are

1. Bookmarks feature. You can add/remove bookmarks in code(kinda like breakpoints), and you can navigate directly between them by using next/previous bookmark. Very useful if you are making changes in two places at once, and want to swap between the two frequently.
2. The comment/uncomment feature. Ctrl+E , Ctrl+C/U for C# settings.
3. The increase/decrease indent of a line. (Only available for VC by default. To assign for C#, go to tools -> Options -> General -> Keyboard and change the Edit.IncreaseLineIndent/Edit.DecreaseLineIndent for TextEditor)

PS: I want to know how to navigate to the members drop down list (just below the tabs list) by the keyboard.

Answer 94

Ctrl+Tab - switch between open tabs/windows in Visual Studio 2005 & 2008.

Kind of like Alt+Tab in Windows, brings up a little box just for the currently open VS files.

Here's a sample screenshot: