Visual Studio | Samuel Haddad

Opening the same file in Visual Studio Twice.

August 17, 2015 by Samuel Haddad·0 Comments

Here’s how to do it …

Select the tab you want two copies of
Select Window > New Window from the menu (this will open the same file again in a new tab)
Right click the new tab and select ‘New Vertical Tab Group’

From StackOverflow

Cannot import the following key file fix

July 27, 2011 by Samuel Haddad·6 Comments

This one has caused me a few hours of pain….a couple of times. It is about time I document how I fixed it.

The Error:

Cannot import the following key file: <filename>.pfx. The key file may be password protected. To correct this, try to import the certificate again or manually install the certificate to the Strong Name CSP with the following key container name: VS_KEY_ E2AEBF22AB52DD08 <Application Name>

The Fix:

Open Visual Studio Command Prompt (It can be found in the Windows Start menu)
Type sn -i “c:\Pathtofile\<filename>.pfx” TVS_KEY_ E2AEBF22AB52DD08
Reimport the pfx file into Visual Studio

The sn.exe with the –i parameter, installs a key pair from <infile> into a key container named <container>.

Creating a Single Instance C# Application

May 19, 2009 by Samuel Haddad·1 Comment

This is something I find myself looking up alot so I decided to put it into a post for easy access, and for anyone else who might be looking for a solution.

using System.Threading;

    static class Program
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// The main entry point for the application.
        /// </summary>
        [STAThread]
        static void Main()
        { 

            bool createdNew = true;
            using (Mutex mutex = new Mutex(true, "SignleInstance", out createdNew))
            {
                if (createdNew)
                {
                    Application.EnableVisualStyles();
                    Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
                    Application.Run(new Form1());
                }
            }

        }
    }

Download Single Instance Application Source Code

I still don’t get why in Visual Studio in VB.NET one could click make single instance application, but that same feature doesn’t exist in C#? Don’t all .NET languages just get compiled to the CIL in the end?

Visual Studio Tips and Tricks

May 6, 2009 by Samuel Haddad·1 Comment

Alternate Case/Format selection:

Have you ever been asked to update some code from a long time ago only to find that almost every tag is in capital letters? AGHH!

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>My Really Old Site</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>

<P> Lots of body test </P>
<P> Lots of body test </P>
<P> Lots of body test </P>

<IMG SRC="mypic.jpg" width=351 height=113>

</BODY>
</HTML>

Highlight all that code and press CTRL + K then CTRL + F and you will format all the code. It would then look something like this


<html>
<head>
<title>My Really Old Site</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>
Lots of body test
</p>
<p>
Lots of body test
</p>
<p>
Lots of body test
</p>
<img src="mypic.jpg" width="351" height="113">
</body>
</html>

Granted your code may still be far from perfect, but it is definitely a huge help.

Key Launcher (Like Alt + Tab on Windows)

Are you someone that lives by keyboard shortcuts? I know I am. Are you familar with Windows Alt + Tab keyboard shortcut and toggling through all active programs? Well a similar feature exists within Visual Studio press Ctrl + Tab and toggle through your active Windows and Files.

Visual Studio Ctrl + Tab

Intellisense

Control + Spacebar will bring up intellisense if you are in code view. Great if you click out by accident or you just want to see what is available in the scope of the code.

Visual Studio Intellisense

Break Points

Have a bunch of break points scattered over a couple of files in a solution. Just want to delete them all and start fresh. Ctrl + Shift + F9 will delete all current break points in a solution. Don’t worry Visual Studio will prompt you with a confirmation first.

Get Visual Studio Professional for free!

Well maybe. If you are a student like myself you can head over to https://www.dreamspark.com/which is run by Microsoft. They offer full versions of some of the newest Microsoft products, like Visual Studio. Why? Because they know we are the future and they think we are an investment. Take them up on the opportunity and get ahead of the competition.

Shortcut key posters:

Microsoft Visual Studio has a bunch of keyboard combinations that can be very helpful, to get a more complete list check out some of the resources Microsoft offers: