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I have Visual Studio 2022, newest version 17.1.0 running on Windows 10 Pro (up to date). This just started happening yesterday, so maybe it has something to do with the new update.

I open a solution, everything is fine. If I minimize Visual Studio, I can't get it back.

It's running. I can see the toolbar icon looks like it's supposed to when an app is running and I can see it in Task Manager. But I can't get it back on the screen (I have a single monitor setup). It makes the error sound, and does nothing. I can right-click and open another instance, or I can right-click and select "close window", but I can't interact with the original instance at all. If I try to ALT-TAB to it, I can see it, but then it still just makes an error sound and won't come back up. If I hover over the taskbar button, it will show me the window and I can right-click on that and choose "restore" or "maximize", and that's the only way I can get it back.

It seems to do this for multiple solutions, but it's fairly consistent, once it's minimized I can't get it back without closing and reopening the solution or the right-click thing. Anyone run into something like this?

g t
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Starfleet Security
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9 Answers9

62

Have the same problem. Only awkward workaround I found so far was to use Process Explorer from Sysinternals, search for a process named devenv.exe, right click -> Window -> Bring To Front.

Update - easier workaround: Click on the VS icon on the taskbar. Once it is selected, press Windows + Cursor Up.

ouflak
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H.D.
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    Thank you so much, i'm having the same problem! – Néstor Eciolaza Feb 23 '22 at 13:41
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    Another workaround is to click the VS taskbar icon and press Enter (lifted from the developercommunity issue linked in OP comments). – moon Feb 24 '22 at 14:29
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    Yet another workaround - press alt-tab, but keep holding alt, then click on the VS window. Sometimes you might have to do it twice. – nphx Feb 25 '22 at 11:39
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    You can also, after clicking the taskbar icon, press `Alt+Space` then `Enter`. Easiest workaround is still in the answer update `WindowsKey+UpArrow` – gknicker Feb 27 '22 at 17:08
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    You can also hover over the taskbar icon and when the preview popup appears do a right click and select restore. This workaround is also effective when there are more than one instances of VS. – Antonis Zafiropoulos Mar 02 '22 at 08:45
28

I do a shift+Right-Click on the icon in the task bar, then select Maximize.

That works for me. [This is still an issue with 17.1.1]

Jeremy Caney
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Anthony Parkhurst
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I have the same problem ever since I updated to VS 2022 17.1. It seems we'll have to wait for an update that fixes the problem.

I have a workaround that works well whether you have multiple vs instances opened and stacked in your taskbar or not.

You simply have to right click the instance you want to restore in the taskbar and select the Maximize option

transit-samuelgrondin
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    Not sure what OS you have, but on Windows 10 I need to Shift-RightClick to get the Restore/Maximize context menu (without Shift I get the "Pin to taskbar" jump menu). – moon Feb 24 '22 at 12:33
  • Also, this trick does not always work. Sometimes you must close IDE and reopen it. – jmventar Feb 24 '22 at 12:50
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I've also found a solution. Just hover your mouse over the icon in the task bar so that the preview is showing, then RightClick -> Restore directly on the preview window rather than needing to launch other tools, task manager etc.

Another solution I've found, is to remove the content of your clipboard. (Start -> Run ... Put some text there copy it). Now you can restore

Paul Farry
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  • Please note that as of 17.1.2 this issue is now fixed. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/releases/2022/release-notes#1712--visual-studio-2022-version-1712-newreleasebutton – Paul Farry Mar 26 '22 at 02:42
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    I am still experiencing this issue with version 17.3.1. @Paul Farray, your workarounds did help. – W. Young Sep 13 '22 at 14:54
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Triple clicking it works for me, but it's still a workaround. (Three times as fast as you can)

Gary Boone
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    Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community Mar 22 '22 at 19:20
  • This solution is also working. But I need to click very fast. – pavinan Mar 29 '22 at 04:25
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You can try following these steps:

  • left-click one the Taskbar icon
  • right-click on the instance
  • select Restore or Maximize to get back to the IDE

I had the same issue with Version 17.1.0.

lemon
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Greg
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This was happening to me regularly with VS 2022 17.1.

So I installed Feature update to Windows 10, version 21H2 to see if that helped, and thus far I have not run into the issue.

Bellarmine Head
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    I upgraded to 21H2 this morning and rebooted... still broken for me (VS 17.1.0). – moon Feb 23 '22 at 13:33
  • Hmm... after many hours of being able to restore (after installing 21H2), it suddenly stopped working again. Now it's intermittent. – Bellarmine Head Feb 23 '22 at 17:24
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Like everyone else, I too am having this issue. I can get it to work with a Shift-Right click, and either maximize or restore works to bring the window to the front. Yet as soon as I minimize again, it breaks.

It appears that using the minimize button on the VS window itself is what breaks it. If you use the Windows taskbar, it minimizes and restores as expected.

Crunchers3
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  • This does not really answer the question. If you have a different question, you can ask it by clicking [Ask Question](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/ask). To get notified when this question gets new answers, you can [follow this question](https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/345661). Once you have enough [reputation](https://stackoverflow.com/help/whats-reputation), you can also [add a bounty](https://stackoverflow.com/help/privileges/set-bounties) to draw more attention to this question. - [From Review](/review/late-answers/31343148) – Ozgur Bagci Mar 23 '22 at 20:27
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Tried all the above suggestions with no luck until I figured out that I recently had disconnected from an external display aside my laptop. Some fiddling in display settings solved it.

Petter Ivarsson
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