Visual Studio Hacks

Visual Studio is the best Integrated Development Environment (IDE) on any platform, and it makes .NET development incredibly easy. Visual Studio's appeal derives from the fact that you can become incredibly productive with it in a few short hours. But there are dozens of features lurking beneath the surface that you might never discover on your own.

James Avery is the founder and owner of Infozerk Inc. which runs The Lounge advertising network and provides .NET and Ruby consulting. James has been working with .NET since 2001 and has been a web developer since 1996. He has written books for Microsoft Press, Wrox, and O'Reilly Press. James has written articles for MSDN Magazine and Dr. Dobbs, most recently doing a three month stint writing the Toolbox column in MSDN Magazine. James is a Microsoft MVP, ASPInsider and has spoken at a number of user groups and conferences.

Credits

ix

Preface

xiii

Master Projects and Solutions

1

(32)

Manage Projects and Solutions

1

(10)

Master Assembly and Project References

11

(4)

Organize Projects and Solutions

15

(5)

Hack the Project and Solution Files

20

(8)

Remove SourceSafe Bindings

28

(5)

Master the Editor

33

(40)

Master the Clipboard

34

(3)

Make Pasting into Visual Studio Easier

37

(4)

Master Intellisense

41

(5)

Master Regions

46

(3)

Add Guidelines to the Text Editor

49

(2)

Select the Best Editor

51

(4)

Customize Syntax Coloring

55

(3)

Edit the Most Recent File and Project Lists

58

(3)

Refactor Your Code

61

(9)

Use and Share Code Snippets

70

(3)

Navigating Visual Studio

73

(24)

Take Control of Your Workspace

73

(5)

Find Files Quickly

78

(5)

Search Files Quickly

83

(1)

Search for Patterns in Your Files

84

(5)

Navigate Your Source Code

89

(2)

Never Forget a TODO Again

91

(3)

Hack the Mouse

94

(1)

Enhance the Tabs in Visual Studio

95

(2)

Customizing Visual Studio

97

(45)

Create Your Own Shortcuts

97

(5)

Customize Menus and Toolbars

102

(5)

Create Custom Window Layouts

107

(2)

Customize the Toolbox

109

(3)

Package Your Toolbox Settings

112

(4)

Add Support for Nonstandard File Extensions

116

(1)

Hack the Registry

117

(3)

Save and Move Your IDE Settings

120

(3)

Enable IntelliSense for HTML and XML Documents

123

(5)

Add an External Tool

128

(4)

Customize Your Project Build Process

132

(6)

Modify the Build Output and Navigate the Results

138

(4)

Debugging

142

(32)

Set Breakpoints

143

(6)

Troubleshoot Breakpoints

149

(3)

Customize Visual Studio's Reaction to Exceptions

152

(3)

Debug Scripting Code

155

(2)

Debug SQL Server

157

(4)

Debug a Running Process

161

(4)

Debug a Failing Application

165

(4)

Write a Custom Visualizer

169

(5)

Speed Hacks

174

(53)

Speed Up Visual Studio

174

(2)

Load Files from the Command Prompt

176

(2)

Master the Command Window

178

(3)

Build a Custom Tool

181

(6)

Extend the Application Configuration File

187

(5)

Generate Strongly Typed DataSets

192

(4)

Define Templates for Generating Code

196

(5)

Create a Macro

201

(5)

Generate Code with Macros

206

(2)

Create Connection Strings Quickly

208

(3)

Quickly Sign Assemblies

211

(2)

Update Project References Quickly

213

(3)

Automatically Add using and Imports Statements

216

(5)

Insert Commonly Used Code Automatically

221

(4)

Move Quickly Between Source Control Providers

225

(2)

Help and Research

227

(44)

Get Help

227

(8)

Search the Internet from Visual Studio

235

(1)

Redirect Help to Google

236

(3)

Use P/Invoke with Ease

239

(4)

Examine the IL Generated by Your Code

243

(5)

Examine the Innards of Assemblies

248

(6)

Follow the Rules with FxCop

254

(8)

Generate Statistics on Your C# Code

262

(4)

Profile Heap Allocations

266

(5)

Comments and Documentation

271

(26)

Master C# XML Comments

272

(8)

Create Comments Faster

280

(5)

Create XML Comments with VB.NET

285

(5)

Create Documentation from XML Comments

290

(2)

Integrate Your Own Documentation into Visual Studio

292

(5)

Server Explorer Hacks

297

(25)

Access Performance Counters

298

(4)

Diagram and Modify a Database

302

(7)

Script Your Database

309

(7)

Enumerate Processes, Drives, Shares, and More

316

(6)

Work with Visual Studio Tools

322

(43)

Master the Visual Studio Command Prompt

322

(4)

Launch Visual Studio from the Command Prompt

326

(3)

Stress Test Web Applications

329

(18)

Obfuscate Your Code

347

(7)

Generate Code from UML

354

(7)

Generate UML Design Documents from Code

361

(4)

Visual Studio Tools for Office

365

(17)

Install Visual Studio Tools for Office 2003

365

(2)

Create a Command Bar in Word 2003

367

(7)

Display a Windows Form from Excel 2003

374

(8)

Extending Visual Studio

382

(35)

Automate Visual Studio

382

(4)

Access Visual Studio from Standalone Applications

386

(3)

Create a File Template

389

(9)

Writing a Visual Studio Add-in

398

(9)

Find the Name of That Command Bar

407

(4)

Change the Icon for Your Add-in

411

(6)

Enhancing Visual Studio

417

(38)

Manage Add-ins

417

(3)

Run Unit Tests Inside Visual Studio

420

(6)

Spellcheck Your Code and Comments

426

(6)

View an Outline of Your Controls

432

(1)

Blog Code from Visual Studio

433

(4)

Collapse and Expand Your Code

437

(2)

Combine the Visual Studio Command Prompt and the Command Window

439

(1)

Generate Web Services Code

440

(9)

Test Regular Expressions in Visual Studio

449

(6)

Index

455

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

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Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials