IDE Tips

Visual Studio

Extensions, keyboard shortcuts, and pro tips to supercharge your Visual Studio workflow.

Marketplace Picks

Extensions

Hand-picked extensions that meaningfully improve your daily workflow in Visual Studio.

Align Assignments

Automatically aligns assignment operators, variable declarations, and other constructs into clean vertical columns — making code dramatically easier to scan and review at a glance.

Read more
Customize VS Window Title

Replaces the default title bar text with configurable tokens — solution path, Git branch, build configuration, and more. Invaluable when running multiple Visual Studio instances side by side.

Read more
Dependency Graph

Renders an interactive visual graph of project-to-project dependencies within your solution. Quickly spot circular dependencies, unexpected couplings, and layering violations before they become problems.

Read more
GitBlame

Annotates every line of the active file with the author, commit hash, and date of the last change — all displayed inline without leaving the editor. Perfect for understanding the history of a piece of code at a glance.

Read more
IntelliCommand

Displays a real-time pop-up showing the keyboard shortcut for any command you trigger via menu or toolbar. Use it for a week and you'll have memorized your most-used shortcuts without any deliberate study.

Read more
Presentation Assistant

Shows the name and keyboard shortcut of each executed command in a large on-screen overlay. An essential tool for live coding sessions, code reviews, and screencasts — your audience always knows exactly what you are doing.

Read more
Visual Commander

The spiritual successor to Visual Studio macros. Write automation commands in C# or VB with full access to the DTE automation model. Record keystrokes, assign shortcuts, and hook into IDE events — all without shipping a separate VSIX.

Read more
VSColorOutput64

Colors the Build and Debug output windows using configurable regex patterns. Errors appear in red, warnings in yellow, success in green — scan hundreds of output lines instantly. Also adds elapsed build-time timestamps.

Read more
VSDoxyHighlighter

Adds rich syntax highlighting and auto-completion for Doxygen documentation comments in C and C++ files. Tags like @param, @return, and @brief are highlighted distinctly, making it faster to read and write well-formatted API docs.

Read more
Entrian Inline Watch

Shows the live values of variables, expressions, and function return values as ghost-text annotations directly in the editor while you debug — no hovering or switching to the Watch/Locals window needed.

Read more
Quick Reference

Keyboard Shortcuts

The shortcuts you reach for every day — organised by task. Click a group to expand.

Ctrl + ,Go to File / Symbol — navigate anywhere in the solution instantly
F12Go to Definition
Alt + F12Peek Definition — view inline without leaving the current file
Ctrl + F12Go to Implementation
Shift + F12Find All References
Ctrl + GGo to Line number
Ctrl + -Navigate Backward (browser-style back)
Ctrl + Shift + -Navigate Forward

Ctrl + .Quick Actions & Refactoring — code fixes, generate boilerplate
F2Rename symbol across the entire codebase
Ctrl + DDuplicate current line
Ctrl + K, DFormat Document — auto-indent entire file
Ctrl + K, FFormat Selection
Ctrl + K, CComment selected lines
Ctrl + K, UUncomment selected lines
Ctrl + M, OCollapse all code regions / methods
Ctrl + M, LToggle all outlining (expand / collapse)
Ctrl + SpaceTrigger IntelliSense manually

F5Start Debugging
Shift + F5Stop Debugging
Ctrl + Shift + F5Restart Debugging
F9Toggle Breakpoint on current line
Ctrl + Shift + F9Delete All Breakpoints
F10Step Over — execute current line and advance
F11Step Into — dive into the called function
Shift + F11Step Out — finish current function and return to caller
Ctrl + F10Run to Cursor — resume until the line under cursor

Ctrl + Shift + BBuild Solution
Ctrl + F5Start Without Debugging
Ctrl + BreakCancel Build
Alt + F7Open Project Properties

Ctrl + Alt + LSolution Explorer
Ctrl + \, EError List
Ctrl + Alt + OOutput Window
Ctrl + TabSwitch between open documents / tool windows
Ctrl + WClose active document tab
Ctrl + K, WClose all document tabs
Pro Tips

Others

Powerful Visual Studio features that many developers never discover.

Multi-Cursor Editing

Hold Alt and click to place multiple cursors anywhere, or use Alt + Shift + ↑/↓ to extend a column selection. Edit dozens of identical spots in a single stroke — no search-and-replace needed.

Bookmarks

Press Ctrl + K, K to toggle a bookmark, then Ctrl + K, N / P to jump between them. Open the Bookmark Window (Ctrl + K, W) to name, organise, and navigate all bookmarks across the solution.

Code Snippets

Type a snippet alias (e.g. prop, ctor, for, try) and press Tab twice to expand it into a full code template. Create your own reusable snippets via Tools → Code Snippets Manager.

Solution Filters

Save a .slnf file that loads only a chosen subset of projects. This dramatically reduces load time and IntelliSense indexing in large solutions. Right-click projects in Solution Explorer → Save as Solution Filter.

Edit and Continue

Modify code while the debugger is paused at a breakpoint, then press F5 to resume without restarting the session. Works for most C# and C++ changes. Enable it under Tools → Options → Debugging → Edit and Continue.

CodeLens

The subtle indicators above each method and class showing reference count, last author, and unit test status. Click any indicator to drill in. Customise what is shown under Tools → Options → Text Editor → All Languages → CodeLens.

Discussion

Comments

Sign in with GitHub to leave a comment or reaction.