title: Visual Studio - tips for managing work on many open files
body: <p>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?</p>
  
  <p>Oh, so you think <em>AARGH</em>, too? Then read on.</p>
  
  <p>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.<br>
  This makes the few files that are <em>relevant</em> to 'fall off' the tab bar, or a pain to find by skimming the visible tabs. </p>
  
  <p>There are some solutions, some more widely known than others. Here's my top 3:</p>
  
  <p><strong>III.</strong> This works if you can <strong>exactly</strong> remember the file name (or at least the first letters): use the 'find box':</p>
  
  <pre><code>type: Ctrl-D &gt;of yourFileName
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>As you type the file name, you get autocomplete on the file names in the solution. More details <a href="http://www.alteridem.net/2007/09/11/quickly-findopen-a-file-in-visual-studio/" rel="noreferrer">here</a>.</p>
  
  <p><strong>II.</strong> The most obvious one: using the 'active files' drop-down on the right of the tab bar which is alphabetically ordered. <br>
  Lesser known fact: use <strong><code>Ctrl-Alt-DownArrow</code></strong> 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 <a href="http://www.chinhdo.com/20070920/top-11-visual-studio-2005-ide-tips-and-tricks-to-make-you-a-more-productive-developer/" rel="noreferrer">here</a>]</p>
  
  <p><strong>I.</strong> <code>&lt;drum roll/&gt;</code> 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:</p>
  
  <p><em>removed dead ImageShack link - sample animation</em></p>
  
  <p>In order to enable this functionality, you have to get your hands dirty with the Windows registry.<br>
  Compulsory edit-registry-at-your-own-risk warning: <br><em>Editing the registry may make your network card drop packets on the floor. You have been warned.</em> </p>
  
  <p>Add this key to the registry for VS 2005:</p>
  
  <pre><code>[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0]
  "UseMRUDocOrdering"=dword:00000001
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>or this for VS 2008:</p>
  
  <pre><code>[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0]
  "UseMRUDocOrdering"=dword:00000001
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>You don't even have to restart VS to see it work! [plagiarized from <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/msbuild/archive/2007/04/13/window-tab-management-in-visual-studio.aspx" rel="noreferrer">here</a>]<br>
  Now go on, give it a try! </p>
  
  <p><strong>Update:</strong>
  This trick no longer works in VS2010 Pro :(</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>This wraps up my part. Now it's your turn to share how you deal with tab hunting!</p>