Time Savers, the Definition of a VS Extension

This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: Channel 9.

It’s the day after Christmas. You’ve gotten some cool tech gifts, so of course you’re firing up Visual Studio to get to coding for/against/with them.

Then you find out you need to restart VS as an Admin. Or you’re trying to debug a VS Extension. Quickly edit the Solution XML? Project? Insert a GUID… And so on and so on… While doing these is not hard, but since maybe you don’t do them every day, it takes a bit of time to hunt down how.

What if these, and more, were just a click away?

That’s what Visual Studio Time Savers

…
Time Savers Toolbar
This extension adds a new toolbar. Because it's usually far easier to click a toolbar button than to have to go hunting for the command you want in a menu somewhere, the most convenient commands have been added to the toolbar.
To make the toolbar visible, right-click in a blank spot on the toolbar area, and select Time Savers.
Like all other Visual Studio toolbars, you can remove any commands that you feel you don't need, or even add new commands to it.
Time Savers Menu
For those people who prefer a menu to a toolbar this extension also adds a new menu to Visual Studio's main menu bar. All commands are available via this menu.
Context Menus
Most features are also available via another menu that's been added to the right-click context menu of any code window, and to some nodes in Solution Explorer. This allows you to access nearly all of the Time Savers features without moving your mouse from the code you're working on.
The commands have been grouped into their own Time Savers menu because most context menus are already pretty clogged up. And they're growing all the time, as Microsoft or 3rd-party extensions add more and more commands to them.
It means that there is one more click than I'd ideally prefer, but I've found it much easier to find the commands in a dedicated menu than having to search through one gigantic menu of different commands.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Some of the features that tend to be used frequently have also been assigned a keyboard shortcut. And of course you can add your own keyboard shortcut to any of the Time Savers commands.
Features
…
Activity Log
Cancel Build
Close Solution
Diagnostic Log
Edit Project
Edit Solution
Extensions and Updates
Insert Guid(s)
Keyboard Options
Path Variables
Rebuild Project
Rebuild Solution
Reopen Start Page
Restart Visual Studio
Restart Visual Studio as Administrator
…
… [Click through to see more and download it]