What is the first thing you do when you install Visual Studio? I am talking about anything customization-wise (so we don't get answers based on 'I create a new project').
Do you have a favorite font?
Do you have a must have extension you couldn't possibly live without?
Do you have a keyboard shortcut you like to set?
I am interested to know your favorites.
For me, I only change the font to Calibri, I find it is easier to read, and I can fit more text on the screen.
I turn off drag-and-drop text editing since it's way too easy to do it by accident.
Change the font to FixedSys and the color scheme to fit my usual style.
I also load up my favorite macro files and assign the most used functions to keyboard shortcuts.
Configure vim as a external editor, so i can code boring stuff through macros on vim and everything else on vs
I open a project and some source files. That way I can see most of the default settings I have to adjust before I can start working.
With no doubt:
I install ReSharper (sold by JetBrains) because it adds a lot of IDE behaviors/features that I became dependent on using Java IDEs.
The first thing I make others do is turn on line numbers for all file types, because it is impossible to pair with someone if you can't tell then what line of code you are looking at.
I change the font to Consolas, and the background to a light gray(#FAFAFA).
Import my settings file (which I keep in source control and share between my computers).
Add on to Seb Nilsson:
Ensure that I have the "Visual C#" settings presets chosen, Turn on Line Numbering, Turn on Smart Tabs and set the tab size to 4.
Alt-drag the toolbar buttons I actually use onto the menu bar, and then close all the toolbars. This is to de-clutter and get vertical space back so I can see more code at once.
Install the latest Service Pack. It's amazing the amount of bugs fixed, and the incompatibilities it solves.
Install
*I wish VS2008 were more multi-monitor aware. I'd like it to have more than one top level frame, so I could arrange panes within each frame, then have one frame maximised on monitor 1 and the other maximised on monitor 2. The current implementation is errr... sub-optimal.
Install an add on called VS.Php so I can use VS to develop and debug PHP
Set the key bindings in Visual Studio to use Emacs.
Re-order toolbars and windows, turn on line numbering, install Mole add-on, add custom snippets.
1) Set the font to Tahoma (mono spaced fonts - pah!).
2) CodeRush / Resharper
... and for web projects, VS2008 'Run As Administrator' as I prefer wep apps to run under IIS
Install Team Explorer.
Followed by resharper
and turn on line numbers
turn of animations
Go and take a smoke while it prepares Visual Studio for the first time.
And thanks to that I am having real problems quitting.
Visual Studio options:
Add-ins:
Search for feacp.dll, rename it to something else, then install Visual Assist X.
Install RockScroll ... because it rocks ;-)
It provides a graphical summary of the code file you have opened:
(Image from Scott Hanselman's blog).
Type Ctrl+D and ">alias ff Edit.FindinFiles" so I can do Ctrl+D ">ff $term" next time I want to search all my files for $term.
Set the keyboard mappings to VC6 mode. I never liked the new keyboard shortcuts :)
Try compiling my projects to see how well they do on vanilla VS.
It gives me some assurance in case I ever decide to share my code.