Why VS 2008 IDE does not remember my preferences?

Question

This is a very small question, which I ask only in compiling ...;)

For some reason, my VS 2008 IDE does not remember the settings of my window when closing and reopening - it resets the width, location, appearance, etc.

Where is the secret switch so that my IDE looks the way I want?

Answer 1

Try restarting Visual Studio

Tools->Import and Export Settings->Reset All Settings 

or

 devenv.exe /resetsettings 

Answer 2

The window fields are stored in the following file:

 %APPDATA%\Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\windows.prf 

I assume that you do not have write access to this file or anything like that.

In any case, if you can somehow delete this file, it will restore it the next time you launch your VS, while the windows will be placed by default.

Answer 3

Do you have multiple instances of VS 2008 open? The settings of the last closed instance will be overwritten by the previously saved ones.

Answer 4

Does the VS start screen appear asking for the type environment? What operating system are you running VS on? More details will probably help give some clues ...

Answer 5

This happened to me after installing some plugins. Perhaps try disabling your plugins and see if this all happens?

In addition, V.S. did not cause me any problems in this aspect. Of course, you should exit VS in your own way and allow it to have enough time to save the settings. Crashing or killing VS somehow naturally prevents this, but I'm sure you already knew that.

Are the symptoms always visible or is it in a rather random way?

Update

Do only window settings appear, and other parameters can be changed without problems? Are you sure you still have write access when you need it? Does it work if you switch to another user account (with administrator privileges)?

Answer 6

I just had this problem, and more or less the demoncodes advice followed. Go to

 %AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0Exp\UserSettings 

and deleted the windows.prf file and backup_windows.prf (first made a copy of it.) It seems that my problems have been fixed at least.

Answer 7

No. Losing window sizes has always been a Windows disease. VS itself is not free from it.

There is more: there are settings and preferences in VS, and you can export them for future use. Options for export skip some settings. Two years have passed, they have not yet corrected it.