As another follow up to personalising Visual Studio (I covered theming the VS IDE with the Visual Studio Desert Nights Theme not too long back), I’d like to offer the settings I run on a dual monitor setup for Visual Studio to, I believe enhance productivity and gives you easier access to common tasks. You can take advantage of this you have multi monitors or dual monitors.
My environment is that of a 3360 x 1050 resolution setup (across two monitors spanning 1680 x 1050 a piece), so these settings are geared up for that, but nonetheless these settings can still be imported on lesser resolutions and from there you can move the appropriate windows around and resize them to how you feel fit. Consider them a tepping stone to achieving your ideal window layout.
Unfortunately the code window and design window (ASP.NET, WinForms, WPF designer) positions cannot be altered as at VS version 2008 but I have done what I can with the rest to give overall more room to common tasks (primarily the coding window) and a larger solution explorer which makes finding files really easy.
This is what my window layout looks like (obviously I could fit the entire screenshot in here, but simply click to view it in full in a new window):
So if you like what you see here and want to download the settings you can do so below:
Download: Visual Studio 2008 Dual Monitor Setup Settings
Just a clarification too by the way, when you are in Build Mode and code execution or debugging has begun, the window layout returns to a single monitor setup for ease of use and so you can still view your app or webpage on the second screen without Visual Studio taking focus; particularly useful for application debugging.
Note: This will only set window position and will not override any colours or theming you have personally customised (These settings as usual can be imported with the following instructions: Visual Studio –> Tools –> Import and Export Settings –> Import Selected Environment Settings –> Select file and personal options. You may reset your window layout to defaults at any time by click “Window –> Reset Window Layout”).
6 Comments
Isn’t it 3360×1050?
“My environment is that of a 3360 x 2100 resolution setup (across two monitors spanning 1680 x 1050 a piece)”
That must be 3360 x 1050, or are you running quad monitors?
I am so looking forward for proper multi monitor support in VS, let me have multiple files open in different windows! I want draggable tabs like Chrome.
so, I noticed that you are running r#, but you talk about finding files in the tree. are you not familiar with the full feature set of your addon? try out ctrl+n, ctrl+shift+n (or ctrl+t, ctrl+shift+t) for navigating directly to types and files.
also, for someone obviously concerned about desktop realestate, you seem to be wasting an awful lot of it on toolbars and those navigation drop-downs at the top of your code window. try turning those off and learning to navigate using the power of your tools (ctrl+F12, ctrl+b, ctrl+shift+b, ctrl+-, etc)
for any toolbar items that you really can’t live without (active build configuration for me) you can just customize the menubar and drop them there. don’t forget that you can also make your own hotkeys in VS200X, so you might as well do that for things you need all the time.
Anyway, I think you have a great start toward a usable IDE there. Keep at it!
I love this setting (although i think solution explorer is just noise). I’m pairing though, and it’s really difficult to clone two monitors either remotely or locally.
LOL Thanks TD & Mark. Yes very true. 3360 x 1050.
@David.adsit: Hey dude, yes I’m familiar with those shortcuts to navigate (ctrl+t, ctrl+shift+t) but I do forget about them all too often! Great tip for bypassing the need to navigate via Solutions Explorer nonetheless. Thanks. Yep I’m a big user of CTRL+B, CTR+SHIFT+B etc and probably some of the toolbars at the top could go if I consciously had a look through them, you’re right. Thanks for the tips and should help everyone.
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