Collapse all files at once in Solution Explorer window in Visual Studio

Question

Is there a way to collapse all the files at once in the Solution Explorer window in Visual Studio?

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 26 '12 at 13:41

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Use the extension Collapse Solution. Usually, this feature comes with ReSharper, but I presume that you are not using ReSharper.

There are also a lot of macros out there that help you do the same. One of them is in ‘Collapse All’ in Visual Studio.

Note: There is no inbuilt way in Visual Studio to actually achieve this. And considering just how practical it is, I would have thought they would have added this kind of feature way back in Visual Studio 2005 itself. I know people have been asking for it for years. But in their infinite wisdom, Microsoft don't consider it important enough.

edited Nov 26 '12 at 13:41

Peter Mortensen

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answered Nov 25 '10 at 03:42

Jagmag

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Resharper should just be built into VS by default :) – Phill Nov 25 '10 at 03:43
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they considered it by making extensibility easy in VS 2010. Ms cannot do 'everything that every developer want' in single product. If you need something - check is there extension for that. If no extension - get your favorite tool and build it yourself. – Alexey Shcherbak Nov 25 '10 at 04:06
They do have an inbuilt way now. There is an icon in solution explorer in visual studio 2013 that gives you the capability. Check out my answer below. – Jay Jay Jay Apr 20 '15 at 17:50

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 16 '15 at 15:10

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In visual studio 2013, there is a button in solution explorer - Collapse All enter image description here

answered Apr 16 '15 at 15:10

Jay Jay Jay

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This is standard in VS 2013, but unfortunately it was not in VS 2010. Really annoying, but I guess it does show progress in the newer versions. – DJ van Wyk Sep 01 '15 at 07:22

Alexey Shcherbak · Answer 3 · 2010-11-25T08:59:08.080

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I think this extension have requested functionality - PowerCommands for VS 2010. Also Productivity Power Tools contains solution navigator which also have this feature and much more usefull stuff for solution navigation and search.

Edited: there also a lot of examples of macro, doing this stuff.

edited Nov 25 '10 at 08:59

answered Nov 25 '10 at 04:04

Alexey Shcherbak

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 10 '15 at 08:10

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In Visual Studio 2013 you can do it with right click by Solution -> Collapse All

answered Jan 10 '15 at 08:10

Pavel Yermalovich

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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 25 '10 at 09:23

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Try free VSCommands 2010 Lite extension. It has this and few other free features.

answered Nov 25 '10 at 09:23

Registered User

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 25 '10 at 03:55

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Of course, you can collapse any selected node by pressing '-', but I understand you are probably looking to collapse the entire tree.

answered Nov 25 '10 at 03:55

Flipster

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Collapse all files at once in Solution Explorer window in Visual Studio

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