Question

I recently installed Visual Studio 2012, and I’ve been banging my head against my desk looking for missing options.

I use the Recent Projects and Solutions menu option (under the File menu) a lot in Visual Studio 2010, but don’t have anything like that in Visual Studio 2012. However, my boss does, so I know there’s something wrong with my install or an option I’ve missed.

I’ve casually looked through registry settings for anything like “Project” that exists in my 2010 settings but does not exist in my 2012 settings, and came up empty handed. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Answer 1

It looks like some part of the upgrade process just removed this menu option for me. Following nithins link to this question, I followed the instructions the author created to re-create the Recent Projects and Solutions menu item.

For posterity, those steps were (performed in Visual Studio 2012):

1. Under the Tools menu, click Customize…
2. Click the Commands tab.
3. Change the Menu bar selected option in the drop-down list to File.
4. Click Add New Menu.
5. Click Modify Selection, rename to Recent Projects and Solutions.
6. Under the Menu bar drop-down list, select File | Recent Projects and Solutions.

7. Click Add Command…

   (The Add Command menu should appear here.)

8. Under Categories on the left-hand side, click File.
9. When the Commands list (on the right-hand side) refreshes, click Recent Project list, and click OK.
10. Click Close.

Happy project switching!