How do I REALLY reset the Visual Studio window layout?

Question

I had a plugin installed in Visual Studio 2008, and it created some extra dockable windows. I have uninstalled it, and I can't get rid of the windows it created - I close them, but they always come back. They're just empty windows now, since the plugin is no longer present, but nothing I've tried gets rid of them. I've tried:

• Window -> Reset Window Layout
• Deleting the .suo files in my project directories
• Deleting the Visual Studio 9.0 folder in my Application Settings directory

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Have you tried this? In Visual Studio go to Tools > Import and Export Settings > Reset all settings

Answer 2

If you've ever backed up your settings (Tools -> Import and Export Settings), you can restore the settings file to get back to a prior state. This is the only thing that I've found to work.

Answer 3

Try devenv.exe /resetuserdata. I think it's more aggressive than the Tools > Import and Export options suggested.

Also check Tools > Add In Manager and make sure there aren't any orphans there.

Answer 4

How about running the following from command line,

Devenv.exe /ResetSettings

You could also save those settings in to a file, like so,

Devenv.exe /ResetSettings "C:\My Files\MySettings.vssettings"

The /ResetSettings switch, Restores Visual Studio default settings. Optionally resets the settings to the specified .vssettings file.

MSDN link

Answer 5

I tried most of the suggestions, and none of them worked. I didn't get a chance to try /resetuserdata. Finally I reinstalled the plugin and uninstalled it again, and the windows went away.

Answer 6

thanks .... and please don't install "ants profiles 4.xx" i was curious , i compromised my Visual studio 2008 sorry , but thats true.

Answer 7

I close them, but they always come back

When you say "they always come back" do you mean "next time you restart Visual Studio" or "immediately"?

One quirk of Visual Studio (at least VS2005) is that settings aren't saved until you exit. That means that if VS crashes at all while you are using it, any layout changes you made will be lost. The way around this is to always gracefully exit when you have set up everything like you want it to be.

Not sure if this will help your particular situation though.

Answer 8

hi guys this is exillant which i tried just goto tools and get the window which u want to see docked and then drag to whichever side u want and just drop on the dropdown lists which will be visible only when u drag the windows those u want to dock.....

suppose u want to make solution explorer dockable as earlier drag that one to right side and drop it on the dropdown list on right side if u didn't got press ctrl while dragging

hope u get

navin

Answer 9

Try this site for a detailed answer.

http://davestar.net

Answer 10

Note: if you have vs2010 and vs2008 and you want to reset the 2008, you will need to specify in command line the whole path. like this:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" /resetsettings

If you don't specify the path (like devenv.exe /resetsettings), it will reset the latest version of Visual studio installed on your computer.