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When I create WinForms project or Control Library project for .NET 6.0, the designer toolbox is empty with information "There are no usable controls in this group".

Reseting toolbox does not fix the problem. Repairing VS installation from VS Installer level does not fix the problem.

Visual Studio Cummunity 2022 v 17.3.1

Has anyone encountered such a problem?

Marcin Kłos
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  • Can you be more specific? What template did you use (complete name)? The one that creates a default GUI, a UserControl or a Class Library? If the latter, then no, there are no Toolbox items, since there's no designer. If the former, you need to have a Form or UserControl in Design mode for the Toolbox to show any items. – Jimi Aug 18 '22 at 11:53
  • I used "Windows Forms App" template. When I use Windows F"orms App (.NET Framework)" everything is ok, but I can only set .net 4.8. – Marcin Kłos Aug 18 '22 at 12:02
  • Design mode is on, form appears, but toolbox is empty. – Marcin Kłos Aug 18 '22 at 12:09
  • Try to [download](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/release-notes/6.0/6.0.8/6.0.8.md?WT.mc_id=dotnet-35129-website) the latest (v. 6.0.4) full .Net 6.0.8 SDK x64. Restart the machine. Create a new Project using the Windows Forms App Template. – Jimi Aug 18 '22 at 13:00
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    Problem still exists. – Marcin Kłos Aug 18 '22 at 13:32
  • With the information available, that's more or less what I can suggest to try out -- You obviously have checked that `Options -> Windows Forms Designer -> Automatically populate Toolbox` is set to `true` and you have reset the Toolbox (again). After that, you should probably try to re-install VS (not repair it), making sure all the relevant components of the `.Net desktop development` workload are selected -- I cannot reproduce the problem. – Jimi Aug 18 '22 at 13:49
  • Populate toolbox was set to true. I made toolbox reset and now its ok. I probably should have done a reset of toolbox after installing SDK. – Marcin Kłos Aug 18 '22 at 14:21
  • Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking. – Community Aug 19 '22 at 14:23

3 Answers3

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I found a solution for this:

  1. Close Visual Studio

  2. Go to this folder on your computer: %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio\

  3. Open the sub-folder for your version of Visual Studio, something like 17.0_65d436a7

  4. Delete these 4 files:

    toolbox.tbd toolbox_reset.tbd toolboxIndex.tbd toolboxIndex_reset.tbd

  5. After you open Visual Studio the toolbox items should be there.

TrueBlue
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    Thanks! This was the only solution that worked. The described path in step 2 however is not correct (for me), I used this instead "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\" – Simser Dec 28 '22 at 13:58
  • Thanks! I had all toolbox items appearing correctly for WinForms .NET framework projects, but none (greyed out) for WinForms .NET (Core/5+) projects. All other solutions suggesting Reset toolbox or Repair did not work. Your solution worked. – Wizou Feb 18 '23 at 20:50
  • Wish the OP had marked this as the answer. Worked for me as well. Reset Toolbox did not work. – Pete Mar 03 '23 at 02:54
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A similar issue occurred on my machine, with an empty Toolbox and all the latest updates. I hadn't noticed the Reset Toolbox option, but I landed here after searching and the comments above helped resolve my issue. For future reference, here's a quick visual guide of things to try if the Toolbox is empty.

Verify

Verify auto-populate toolbox

Reset

Reset Toolbox

Resetting...

enter image description here

John Lewin
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Try right click on Toolbox empty space and click "Show All".

Andrija
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