How do you feel about VS making you hunt for a tab that you used just minutes ago when you have a bazillion open tabs? What about constantly dragging tabs around to keep the ones you use close together?

Oh, so you think *AARGH*, too? Then read on.

I work on a piece of software with dozens of projects and hundreds of files. It's really easy to get the tab bar to fill up - like when debugging, which can open a lot of files, most of which are just boilerplate, or not really interesting for the task at hand.  

This makes the few files that are *relevant* to 'fall off' the tab bar, or a pain to find by skimming the visible tabs. 

There are some solutions, some more widely known than others. Here's my top 3:

**III.** This works if you can **exactly** remember the file name (or at least the first letters): use the 'find box':

```
type: Ctrl-D >of yourFileName

```

As you type the file name, you get autocomplete on the file names in the solution. More details [here](http://www.alteridem.net/2007/09/11/quickly-findopen-a-file-in-visual-studio/).

**II.** The most obvious one: using the 'active files' drop-down on the right of the tab bar which is alphabetically ordered.   

Lesser known fact: use **`Ctrl-Alt-DownArrow`** to open that drop-down, then start typing the file name. You get the added benefit of visualizing the available choices. [info shamelessly stolen from [here](http://www.chinhdo.com/20070920/top-11-visual-studio-2005-ide-tips-and-tricks-to-make-you-a-more-productive-developer/)]

**I.** `<drum roll/>` This one is my personal favourite, and it's based on an undocumented feature of VS 2005/2008. When activated, it does one simple thing: clicking a tab moves it to the left-most side of the window. This basic action usually lets me find the tab I'm looking for in the first 3 to 5 tabs. 
It goes like this:

*removed dead ImageShack link - sample animation*

In order to enable this functionality, you have to get your hands dirty with the Windows registry.  

Compulsory edit-registry-at-your-own-risk warning:   
*Editing the registry may make your network card drop packets on the floor. You have been warned.* 

Add this key to the registry for VS 2005:

```
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0]
"UseMRUDocOrdering"=dword:00000001

```

or this for VS 2008:

```
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0]
"UseMRUDocOrdering"=dword:00000001

```

You don't even have to restart VS to see it work! [plagiarized from [here](http://blogs.msdn.com/msbuild/archive/2007/04/13/window-tab-management-in-visual-studio.aspx)]  

Now go on, give it a try! 

**Update:**
This trick no longer works in VS2010 Pro :(

---

This wraps up my part. Now it's your turn to share how you deal with tab hunting!