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Cleanup the Solution Explorer context menu

The Solution Explorer context menu is totally ridiculous. We pay lots of attention to the toolbar buttons but people (groups within MS) continue to through everything plus the kitchen sink into the context menu. Let's not put features in your face at the cost of good usability.

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    shanselmanshanselman shared this idea  ·   ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →

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      • William BosackerWilliam Bosacker commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        I have to disagree with the blatant removal of any items, but I do agree that it should be customizable. There are way to many tasks that used to take only 2 clicks, that now take as many as 5 clicks, which makes absolutely no sense at all. Especially when they are tasks that I use all the time.

        The bottom line is, if it's not going to be customizable, then leave it AS-IS.

      • Abel PereiraAbel Pereira commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        Although I have no votes left I totally subscribe this topic. Solution context menu is so big it actually takes me time to find the item I am looking for. Yet, I suspect some of the items may have a residual usage and could be placed on a sub menu or simply removed.
        Although I never enjoyed very must the [old] office approach of hiding items barely used, this might be a way to go. Anyway, this is an issue I have been noticed for a while and it's continually getting worst. Hope VS team do something regarding this.

      • LuisLuis commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        I personally don't have a problem with long context menus but I think there is likely a better approach to let users decide how to use it.

        I do have an issue with context menu options which get used a lot, like source control, but are suddenly part of a sub menu. Why the extra clicks?

        The context menu, attached by Scott, has a build options.
        It would be good to let the user choose if that only shows as toolbar button, only as context menu choices or both.

        This setting could be added within the toolbar drop down which lets users add or remove buttons.

      • Wouter VosWouter Vos commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        Could you give some ideas on what you want to remove? For me the context menu is fine, but I'm not a web programmer, which you seem to be. Also I almost never use the context menu. I'd downvote this if I could, but no downvotes allowed...

      • Chris McGrathChris McGrath commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        Just a reminder, Visual Studio has an excellent extension model. Somebody could write an extension to do this.

        And for those who are saying there's the option to customise already - Have you actually tried to use it for context menus? It's completely unusable.

      • Zamir MusaevZamir Musaev commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        Yes it should be cleaned, especially when you install extensions it becomes extremely long and unusable

      • AhmedAhmed commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        Oh, and how easy is it to keep your settings between machines?? You can backup/restore settings but it's not auto syncing..

        How about keeping windows app settings on Skydrive/Dropbox/Box/Roaming Profile??

      • AhmedAhmed commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        If it's already customisable like @flora said:

        Tools > Customize > Commands > Context menu > Project and Solution Context Menus

        It's easy enough to remove 'your' unused commands but if they started with a minimalist menu that didn't include some of the commands you use regularly, how easy would it be to add the commands you actually use?

        The list of commands is monstrous! And the customization dialog is probably from the 90's ;-)

        Maybe it's the customization system that needs an overhall because at the moment, very few people use and very few even know it's available.

        VS is powerful and flexible but not easy to blend into a streamlined workflow... maybe we need to bring back clippy!!!

        ...or just add some templates for context menus/toolbars - so you just pick the one that suits you best and then remove the commands you don't use??

        @shanselman, can you make it happen?? :-)

      • Husein RončevićHusein Rončević commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        I wouldn't change the menu, I would just add search capability. Type of a few letters to search for your option. This could include the options from extensions such as ReSharper, etc.

      • ThomasXThomasX commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        Fix the rest of the GUI too. We got 32 bit of color depth. Why only let us use 4?

      • Tudor TurcuTudor Turcu commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

        A good idea, as long as the removed items will remain easily accessible. Moving some command into sub-menus (hierarchical structure) would be a good compromise.

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