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Visual Studio Notebook with Multiple Monitors Docked

When I have a laptop installed, I like to have Visual Studio, and the sidebar windows extend to 2 monitors, so I can have an enlarged view of the code and all the additional windows on the second monitor. When I unlock my laptop to work on the go, I obviously lose the advantage of 2 monitors. However, switching between 1 and 2 monitors is a tough experience, as window layouts become all damaged or lost when going back and forth.

Anyone who works this way and has found a successful way to save layouts when docking and undocking between two monitors and a laptop monitor? I understand that you probably cannot have the same layout in both scenarios, but can VS be smart enough to switch between 2 layout configurations or something?

Thanks in advance.

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3 answers

That's what I'm doing:

  • Set up the environment windows as you want on each of your two settings (multiple monitors and one laptop screen).

  • Using the "Import and Export Settings Wizard" (in the "Tools" menu), select export only "General Settings> Window Layouts" to the files named for each configuration. Store files somewhere where they will always be convenient.

  • Then, when you switch the settings, use the “Import and Export Settings Wizard” to import the settings file that accurately describes your new setting. Visual Studio will rebuild the tool windows into the layout described in the settings file.

Unfortunately, Visual Studio is not smart enough to automatically handle this for you (yet), so you still have to switch between the two layouts yourself. This is a little hack, but it definitely works.


If you felt very adventurous (or upset), you could write an extension for Visual Studio to remember your position in the window and / or automatically import the corresponding settings file. I am sure that you and I are not the only ones who could use this well.

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Visual Studio remembers 3 layouts - normal, full screen and debugging. You can configure them as you want, and then you can use Normal / Full Screen to switch when you are docked / undocked. This is slightly faster than importing settings.

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Visual Studio implies that you are using Windows. I used to use a product called UltraMon to help with this. Desire was equivalent for Mac.

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