1. The Visual Studio .NET IDE Customization and Enhancements
Chapter 6 - Pumping up the IDE
Coder To Developer - Mike Gunderloy
Respected Professor: Dr. James Fawcett
Presented By: Ghanashyam N

2. Pumping Up The IDE
In order to be useful to a developer an IDE must have the following characteristics
Support for Customization
Developers must be able to define their own shortcuts and choose their own window layouts and keyboard settings
It must be possible to automate repetitive tasks
Support for Extensibility
Developers must be able to use third-party tools to achieve functionality that is not present (by default) in the IDE

3. Pumping Up VS .NET
This presentation will focus on the following topics
Customizing VS .NET
Using VS.NET Macros
Using VS.NET Add-Ins

4. Customizing VS .NET Using Profiles
(My Profiles tab on Help ►Show Start Page)
Enables selection of a group of settings for
Keyboard Scheme
Window Layout
Help Filtering
Startup Options

7. Customizing VS .NET Setting VS .NET Options (Tools ►Options)
Environment ►General
Increase number
of items on most
recently used list

8. Customizing VS .NET Setting VS .NET Options (Tools ►Options)
Environment ►Documents
Get rid of
“Are you sure?”
prompts

9. Customizing VS .NET Setting VS .NET Options (Tools ►Options)
Environment ►Fonts and Colors
Use developer-
friendly fonts
(e.g. ProFont,
Sheldon)

10. Customizing VS .NET Setting VS .NET Options (Tools ►Options)
Environment ►Task List
Use your own
comment tags
to put items
In the Task List

12. Customizing VS .NET Setting VS .NET Options (Tools ►Options)
Text Editor ►C# ► General
Show line
numbering in
editor window

13. Customizing VS .NET Setting VS .NET Options (Tools ►Options)
Text Editor ►C# ► Tabs
Set tab size
and indent width

14. Customizing VS .NET Setting VS .NET Options (Tools ►Options)
Database Tools ►Server Explorer
Increase login
timeout for WAN
or Internet based
access

15. Customizing VS .NET Some More Tips
Developer fonts - ProFont and Sheldon are available for download at
For even more customization possibilities try VS .NET PowerToys available at
Explore Tools ►Options for several more useful options

16. Using VS .NET Macros
Increase productivity by using Macros to avoid repetitive work
A macro is a series of actions saved in a scripting language
VS .NET includes
A Macro recorder and playback facility
A Macro editor
Keyboard bindings for Macros
An object model to let Macros work with the IDE

17. Using VS .NET Macros Macro Recorder
(Tools ►Macros ►Record Temporary Macro)
(Ctrl + Shift + R)
Macro Playback
(Tools ►Macros ►Run Temporary Macro)
(Ctrl + Shift + P)
Macro Explorer
(View ►Other Windows ►Macro Explorer)
Provides a project abstraction for Macros
Supports editing and saving of Macros and Macro projects
Setting Macro Keyboard Shortcuts
(Tools ►Options ►Environment ►Keyboard)

18. Using VS .NET Add-Ins
The VS .NET IDE was designed to be extensible and many utility vendors have taken advantage of this extensibility by developing Add-Ins that plug into it
VS .NET uses an object model called the DTE (Design-Time Environment) object model to support Macros as well as Add-Ins
[For further details see - Inside Microsoft Visual Studio .NET - Brian Johnson, Craig Skibo, and Marc Young]
Add-Ins can make the IDE more productive, and often help in analyzing and improving the quality of code that you write

19. Useful VS .NET Add-Ins Project Line Counter (WndTabs)
Useful little Add-In for counting SLOC (Source Lines of Code)

21. Useful VS .NET Add-Ins QuickJump .NET
VS .NET already supports incremental search (Ctrl + I) mode, class view and dropdown class and member lists for easy navigation
QuickJump is an Add-In that simplifies source code navigation in a different way
Alt + G gives a window showing a list of members in the current class which can be used for navigation
Provides a search and filtering mechanism to simplify navigation

24. More VS .NET Add-Ins Total .NET Analyzer (FMS) CodeWright for VS .NET
Code analyzer for .NET that warns regarding deviations from best practices and likely errors
CodeWright for VS .NET
Replaces VS .NET’s editor with CodeWright’s editor and lets you use CodeWright’s keystrokes and color syntax (amongst other features)

25. More VS .NET Add-Ins IBM Rational XDE Developer .NET DevPartner Studio
Add-In that supports modeling through UML and also supports reverse engineering and model-to-code synchronization
DevPartner Studio
Add-In that provides code coverage analysis along with a rules-driven engine that can be used to locate dangerous parts of code before they break down

26. Yet More VS .NET Add-Ins http://sharptoolbox.madgeek.com/
A definitive list of VS .NET Add-Ins and other .NET utilities is available at

27. Add-In Hell
Having too many Add-Ins installed can slow down the IDE and affect system performance
Too many Add-Ins can cause shortcut key conflicts between individual Add-Ins
It is a good practice to uninstall Add-Ins that you no longer use

28. Thank You