How to pin Visual Studio Solutions in Windows 7 Taskbar

Question

As in the title. Is it possible? When I rightclick on Visual Studio in a Taskbar I have a "Recent" category there i have but 1 .cs file that I can pin.

Now the question is: what to do to pin a .sln solution there?

Answer 1

If you pin the VSLauncher.exe to the taskbar (drag it in) you will get recent projects and solutions on the right click menu.

You can find this exe in your program files / common files directory. Mine is in

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSENV\VSLauncher.exe

You can also do this by dragging a solution into the task bar (which does the same as the above). If you do this rightclicking it will show recent projects and solutions.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

This is for Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition. You may adapt for other editions.

reg add HKCR\.sln\OpenWithProgids /v VCExpress.dsw.9.0

Answer 3

This is an old question, but I found a way avoid the drawback to the accepted answer that Vladimir Grigorov mentioned in a comment, that an additional VS icon shows up on the taskbar.

Instead of pinning VSLauncher.exe, pin

devenv.exe

(C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE)

to the taskbar.

Now drag your solution onto the VS icon in the taskbar. You should see a tooltip saying "Pin to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010". Using this method will let you pin solutions to the taskbar without showing additional VS icons on the taskbar.

Answer 4

The VSLauncher.exe needs a solution or project path to do anything usefull. In the right click of the taskbar item you can right click the microsoft version selector and click properties. There you will then be able to give it a path by editing the target field. This will stop you getting the error.

This is all based on adding one solution to the task bar as per your question. I did not find a way of adding more than one!

Hope this helps.

Answer 5

To expand on karyonix's answer:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VisualStudio.sln.9.0]
@="Microsoft Visual Studio Solution"
"InfoTip"="prop:Size;Type;DocComments;Write"
"TileInfo"="prop:Type;DocComments;Size"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VisualStudio.sln.9.0\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VisualStudio.sln.9.0\shell\Open]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VisualStudio.sln.9.0\shell\Open\command]
@="\"c:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\\Common7\\IDE\\devenv.exe\" \"%1\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VisualStudio.sln.9.0\ShellEx]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VisualStudio.sln.9.0\ShellEx\IconHandler]
@="{9A2B23E4-2A50-48DB-B3C3-F5EA12947CB8}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VisualStudio.sln.9.0\ShellEx\PropertyHandler]
@="{9A2B23E4-2A50-48DB-B3C3-F5EA12947CB8}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.sln\OpenWithProgids]
"VisualStudio.sln.9.0"=""

Note the reference to Program Files (x86) - adjust if you're not running 64-bit Windows.

This adds Visual Studio 2008 to the "Open With" menu, and enables recent solutions in the right-click menu.

Answer 6

Just wanted to add to Blorgbeard and karyonix that this definitely works, and here's how I modified it to work with VS 2005 sln files:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.sln]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.sln\OpenWithProgids]
"VisualStudio.sln.8.0"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VisualStudio.sln.8.0]
@="Microsoft Visual Studio Solution"
"InfoTip"="prop:Size;Type;DocComments;Write"
"TileInfo"="prop:Type;DocComments;Size"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VisualStudio.sln.8.0\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VisualStudio.sln.8.0\shell\Open]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VisualStudio.sln.8.0\shell\Open\command]
@="\"D:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\\Common7\\IDE\\devenv.exe\" \"%1\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VisualStudio.sln.8.0\ShellEx]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VisualStudio.sln.8.0\ShellEx\IconHandler]
@="{9A2B23E4-2A50-48DB-B3C3-F5EA12947CB8}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VisualStudio.sln.8.0\ShellEx\PropertyHandler]
@="{9A2B23E4-2A50-48DB-B3C3-F5EA12947CB8}"

Make sure you edit the command path correctly, because for 2005 the folder is Microsoft Visual Studio 8, not 8.0