Customizing Visual Studio Start Page

Question

Is there a way to customize the VS 2008 Start Page? I want to display a WebSite (a Sharepoint Site) instead of the News Feeds, but I can't find an solution for this.

Answer 1

You can edit the URL in registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0Exp\Configuration\StartPage

but it only takes in RSS feeds.

Answer 2

Tools -> Options-> Environment -> Startup

Change the drop down to Open Home Page...

Tools -> Options-> Environment -> Web Browser -> Web Page

Set your home page to whatever you want it to be...

Answer 3

"but it only takes in RSS feeds." <- sad but true... :(

Tools->Options-> Environment -> Start Up

Change the drop down to "Open Home Page".

Tools->Options-> Environment -> Web Page

Set your home page to whatever you want it to be.

This is what i currently do - but then you loose the Start Page with the recently Open Projects - would be nice if you can replace the Feed's with an HomePage - but it looks like it is impossible...

thx Guys

Answer 4

To summarize both @Khash and @JPunyons answers:

Visual Studio gives you the choice of showing a Start Page, which is based on an RSS feed or to show a Home Page, which can be any page on the internet. You can change which one is shown from Tools / Options / Environments / Startup / At startup combobox.

If you choose the Start Page, you can modify the RSS feed from Tools / Options / Environments / Startup / Start Page news channel.

If you choose the Home Page, you can modify the URL from Tools / Options / Environments / Web Browser / Home Page.

Answer 5

If you're using Visual Studio 2008 Professional, you need to change the value of NewsChannel in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\StartPage.