[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":153},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog:2006:visual-studio-tips-1":3,"blogMore-Development":139,"comments-visual-studio-tips-1":152},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"category":119,"commentCount":120,"date":121,"description":12,"excerpt":122,"extension":123,"filenames":124,"hidden":125,"image":126,"meta":128,"minutes":113,"navigation":129,"path":130,"seo":131,"showCategory":124,"stem":132,"tags":133,"updated":124,"url":136,"wordCount":137,"__hash__":138},"content\u002Fblog\u002F2006\u002Fvisual-studio-tips-1.md","Visual Studio tips & tricks",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":111},"minimark",[9,13,16,21,29,32,43,51,55,58,68,72,83,90,94,100,106],[10,11,12],"p",{},"The Visual Studio IDE (VS2003, VS2005) is a massive beast with a plethora of options, settings and tweaks to be had.",[10,14,15],{},"A few of my favorite, often overlooked ones, are:",[17,18,20],"h2",{"id":19},"adding-existing-folders","Adding existing folders",[10,22,23,24,28],{},"The ",[25,26,27],"em",{},"Add > Existing Item…"," is all well and good for adding files but how do you add folders to your project?",[10,30,31],{},"Specifically folders you’ve already dropped in place, ideally with all the files and sub-folders added.",[10,33,34,35,38,39,42],{},"Simple: Click the ",[25,36,37],{},"Show All Files"," button at the top of the ",[25,40,41],{},"Solution Explorer_pane then right-click the folder you want included and choose _Include in Project",".",[44,45],"img",{"className":46,"src":49,"alt":50},[47,48],"screenshot","right","https:\u002F\u002Fimg.damieng.com\u002Fblog\u002Fvs2005-csharp-navbar.gif","Visual Studio 2005 C# Navigation bar window",[17,52,54],{"id":53},"speed-up-large-c-projects","Speed up large C# projects",[10,56,57],{},"VS2003 and 2005 can be sluggish at times especially with large projects.",[10,59,60,61,64,65,42],{},"To get a much-needed speed boost head over to ",[25,62,63],{},"Tools > Options… > Text Editor > C#"," and uncheck ",[25,66,67],{},"Navigation bar",[17,69,71],{"id":70},"install-the-c-snippets","Install the C# snippets",[10,73,74,75,82],{},"On occasion I find simple example snippets of C# code ending up on the front page of DotNetKicks despite Microsoft ",[76,77,81],"a",{"href":78,"rel":79},"https:\u002F\u002Fmsdn.microsoft.com\u002Fvstudio\u002Fdownloads\u002Fcodesnippets\u002Fdefault.aspx#VCS",[80],"nofollow","providing an entire snippet library of C# code"," to do these things already.",[10,84,85,86,89],{},"Head over to their download site, install the MSI then choose ",[25,87,88],{},"Tools > Code Snippets Manager… > Visual C# > Add…"," and enter the folder name that it popped up with post-install.",[17,91,93],{"id":92},"open-folder-in-windows-explorer","Open folder in Windows Explorer",[10,95,96,97,42],{},"From time to time you’ll need to break out of Visual Studio into Windows Explorer and wondered why there is no right-mouse button context menu option available from ",[25,98,99],{},"Solution Explorer",[10,101,102,103,42],{},"Just open the file from inside Visual Studio then right-click on the tab and choose ",[25,104,105],{},"Open Containing Folder",[10,107,108],{},[25,109,110],{},"[)amien",{"title":112,"searchDepth":113,"depth":113,"links":114},"",2,[115,116,117,118],{"id":19,"depth":113,"text":20},{"id":53,"depth":113,"text":54},{"id":70,"depth":113,"text":71},{"id":92,"depth":113,"text":93},"Development",0,"2006-10-11T01:01:09+00:00","[object Object]","md",null,false,{"className":127,"src":49,"alt":50},[47,48],{},true,"\u002Fblog\u002F2006\u002Fvisual-studio-tips-1",{"title":5,"description":12},"blog\u002F2006\u002Fvisual-studio-tips-1",[134,135],".NET","Visual Studio","\u002Fblog\u002F2006\u002Fvisual-studio-tips-1\u002F",261,"Om88mIRcx5gBAEu2d8UWkZIBuxh1jGxlB3UZvTAfG2Q",[140,144,148],{"title":141,"date":142,"url":143},"Transactions in the MongoDB EF Core Provider","2025-10-25","\u002Fblog\u002F2025\u002Fmongodb-explicit-transactions\u002F",{"title":145,"date":146,"url":147},"Queryable Encryption with the MongoDB EF Core Provider","2025-09-22","\u002Fblog\u002F2025\u002Fmongodb-queryable-encryption\u002F",{"title":149,"date":150,"url":151},"Lazy Loading with EF Core Proxies","2025-04-02","\u002Fblog\u002F2025\u002Fef-proxies\u002F",[],1780900532713]