Visual Studio 2010, 2015 - windows off screen

Question

I was previously using a dual-monitor setup with a 24" monitor and my laptop's built-in monitor.

I've since connected a 2nd 24" monitor and am no longer using the laptop screen at all. (It is disabled).

In my regular view (coding, etc) the properties window, solution explorer, toolbox, etc were all visible and I just needed to move/resize them to fit the larger screen size.

Unfortunately this is no the case with the debugging view. I need to debug something and it appears my locals and other windows are off the edge of the screen. I've tried Ctrl+D,L but it doesn't seem to want to bring it up.

I can't find anywhere in the menu a command to reset windows.

Any idea what I can do?

Answer 1

You can move any window in Windows using keyboard shortcuts. First, give the focus to the window, even if you can't see it, by toggling the tool window. Then press alt+space, 'm', press an arrow key, and then move the cursor in the visible screen region. If all goes well, the window should have followed. You can practice the trick with a notepad window. Note that the mnemonic depends on your Windows language, it's 'l' in French.

Answer 2

Have you tried the Window menu | Reset Window Layout command? Obviously that will do more than you really want, but it is perhaps better than nothing

Answer 3

This phenomena of off-screen dialog windows appears to coincide with having dual monitors as OP indicates. I resolved my issue be disconnecting the dual monitors and bringing Visual Studio up on the main monitor. I summoned the offending dialog and I was able to access it again. Manually recenter the dialog otherwise this does not work. Reattach the dual monitor and the dialog works properly thereafter.

Answer 4

I'm not sure if this will reset Window settings, but you could try deleting your .suo file (in solution directory). This might reset those windows to their default positions.

Answer 5

This should still be an issue. Here is my simple solution.

• Remove the following file. ('user' and 'MyApps' in my case, yours could be different.)

  C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\MyApps\window-state.json

• Restart the application.

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