In VS2012 when you select a file in solution explorer it automatically opens file in a special "preview" tab.
Maybe my computer is not fast enough, but this preview is too slow for my taste.
How do I disable this feature?
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257This is (in my opinion) one of the most fundamentally anti-useful features I've ever seen – joshcomley Oct 30 '12 at 10:10
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15Most of the new features in VS 2012 are ;) – THX-1138 Oct 30 '12 at 14:19
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5luckily, most if not all of the features can be turned on / off – hanzolo Nov 13 '12 at 19:20
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12FYI I'm annoyed by this feature because I click the solution explorer so that I can scroll through the files with the mouse wheel, but the preview then blocks my current tab. – Endy Tjahjono Dec 20 '12 at 03:43
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13By default when you do Alt + Click it won't open the clicked file in preview mode. It should be other way around. If you need to preview then Alt + click. Don't know why microsoft didn't think from the usability point of view. – Esen Dec 27 '12 at 15:24
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2I'm a key user, so I don't click. Simply using my arrow key to navigate around files in the solution explorer causes all sorts of previewing. In a database project (not sure why) it forces focus away from the solution explorer to the previewed file... – dudeNumber4 Jan 04 '13 at 15:01
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3i think they were trying to mimic a similar feature in xcode which i also find annoying about xcode which is why i use an alternate IDE for IOS development – Chris McGrath Jan 26 '13 at 23:06
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2@EndyTjahjono FYI you don't need to click on the solution explorer to scroll, you can just hover over it and use your scroll wheel. I always tend to click on it too, out of habit, and agree that this feature is annoying. – MrDustpan Jan 29 '13 at 18:45
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9I have to say that I am incredibly disappointed that MS forced the new ,non MDI behaviour on everyone despite a loud dissenting voice. The preview feature makes the UI something you have to actively fight in order to get your job done. VS is going in the wrong direction. – greg May 12 '13 at 15:23
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2This feature sucks. I have an asciimap.txt file that folds/maps all 65536 Unicode characters into their closest equivalent or visually similar ASCII character or character sequences, and Visual Studio freezes for a few seconds while it opens it. But I didn't double click the file, I just selected it. It's ridiculous that it tries to open every file I select. I really hate how it unselects whatever code I'm viewing when I click on a different file just to view its properties. – Triynko Oct 14 '13 at 17:22
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I think the idea behind this feature is great. Having windows automatically close when you are done with them would save some time. The real issue is that the implementation of when the preview is used doesn't line up with real user usage. – Ian Hern Nov 05 '13 at 01:06
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@joshcomley; It's funny you say that, it's one of the most useful features I've seen (in my opinion) :-) – Erti-Chris Eelmaa Mar 25 '15 at 11:56
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1I hated this feature and turned it off, but I just found my first use for it. I was needing to thumb through a bunch of script files to find one that had an example of a specific type of query. IMO this feature should be off by default. Alt+click should allow a preview of the file. Not the other way around. – nycfdtd May 27 '15 at 22:38
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I wonder if ANYONE actually uses this feature? – niico Apr 10 '17 at 20:09
5 Answers
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In Tools > Options > Environment > Tabs and Windows, you can disable it by unckecking "Solution explorer" under Preview tab.
I find it using the "Quick launch" new feature. Simply type "preview", and a link to the setting will be suggested. Great new feature of VS
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3could you elaborate on "Quick find" please. It just jumps through files that contain "preview". Are you talking about [Main Menu->Edit->Find and Replace->Quick Find] dialog, or is there another "Quick find"? – THX-1138 Jun 08 '12 at 16:35
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10It's called "Quick Launch" in the RC. It's a text field at the far right of the window title bar. – Ben Jun 12 '12 at 15:52
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7Bonus points for pointing out the use of Quick Launch! I am still getting used to it. So many cool features! (Type 'Quick Launch' in it to see other providers! Very cool!) – kodybrown Jan 23 '13 at 17:47
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If it wasn't so slow, I would say that this *Quick Launch* box is the most useful new feature of VS 2012 :) – Steve B Jan 24 '13 at 08:32
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@SteveB Anyone knows a way of also previewing files which are visible in `Pending Changes` in `Team Explorer`? – Ozkan Jan 02 '19 at 13:46
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You can also toggle file preview within the Solution Explorer tool-window itself:
This may have been added in the July update because I hadn't noticed it before then.
Dan Nolan
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18I literally breathed a sigh of relief as I was clicking this icon to disable the auto-preview. Thank you. – Yuck Dec 06 '12 at 20:22
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9Can more than one answer be "Accepted?" Yours and @Steve B's are essentially the same, but yours is simpler. He answered it before the July (2012) updated but is still technically correct. Yours is simpler and everyone can use it now. – vbullinger Jun 26 '13 at 17:27
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5how, HOW have I gone this long and never discovered this stupid button?! – SelAromDotNet Jul 26 '13 at 07:11
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1This wasn't enough for me as I still got preview windows when I used "Go To Definition" (F12) – Ian Hern Nov 05 '13 at 01:09
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2@Sosh: you probably missed the button because of the no color design of VS 2012 buttons. Hopefully, Microsoft heard us and reintroduced some colors in VS 2013 (they finally heard the 90% of unhappy developers with this design decisions) – Steve B Nov 26 '13 at 09:49
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@Ian Hern, did you find the solution to situations, when F12 opens file in a preview window? – Vita1ij May 13 '15 at 14:02
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One of the buttons at the top of the solution explorer toggles whether this is enabled.
Daniel Plaisted
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An even better solution IMO is to completely disable the File Preview feature (not just for Solution Explorer):
- Open Tools > Options
- Navigate to Environment > Tabs and Windows
- Uncheck "Allow new files to be opened in the preview tab"
This also prevents things like Go To Definition (F12) from using preview tabs.
