Missing Start Page from Visual Studio 2019

Oh Microsoft, why hast thou forsaken the beloved 'Start Page' and replaced it with a modal window?

The new 'Start Window' which replaces the 'Start Page'

You can see the design reasoning behind the new VS 2019 Start Window as posted at 'Get to code: How we designed the new Visual Studio start window' and 'New Start Window and New Project Dialog Experience in Visual Studio 2019'.

I sincerely appreciate any amount of thought, consideration, or testing that a company decides to invest in their products - especially a flagship produce like Visual Studio.  Based on the design reasoning Microsoft certainly had good intentions and did put a good amount of thought and testing into the effort.  However, I think they missed the mark.  Perform any Google search on "missing start page visual studio 2019" or look on the Developer Community Feedback Site and you'll see devs crying out for the beloved Start Page.

Some things are better left untouched and left alone and the Start Page is one of them. Some might argue the new 'Start Window' is a better experience but why make it a modal window?  Really?  In Visual Studio 2019 Preview 1, at least the option to restore the 'Start Page' was available as an option in the Startup settings:

However, somewhere along the way the 'Start Page' item has disappeared from the drop-down...headsmack!  Here's what the options are in version 16.0.2:

Ok, now I'm getting frustrated.  I get it. You're trying to funnel me into this new window that you think is better.  Well, my response is

Fortunately, Microsoft hasn't completely done away with the 'Start Page'...yet.  You can still add it by customizing the toolbar to add the Start Page button:

1. Right-click the toolbar and select 'Customize':

2. Select the 'Commands' tab:

3. Select 'Toolbar' and change the dropdown to whatever menu you'd like, then click the 'Add Command' button:

4. Choose 'File' from the Categories list box, then select 'Start Page' from the Commands list box:

So, there you go!  At least it's still there for now.  I'd bet any amount of money that they change the experience back so that either the 'Start Page' option is available from the Environment/Startup setting. To be fair, Microsoft has improved significantly at listening to community feedback.

Referencing platform-specific (x86/x64) assemblies in Visual Studio projects

CodeProjectRecently I've been thinking about how to make Assembly References dependent on the Platform Architecture for a given compiled application/library. A solution for this problem is necessary as you begin to move your apps to the x64 platform.

There are 2 solutions: one method is for "project-references"; the other is for "path-hardcoded dll references". Unfortunately, both involve manually editing the .csproj file yuk... AFAIK, there is no way to do this within the VisualStudio 2008 UI - I don't know about VS 2010. Note that it is NOT necessary to modify any of the references to the .NET dlls.

One quick note about these solutions is that they are independent of the Platform Architecture of the machine that is compiling the projects!

After opening the .csproj file in a text-editor (or as a .xml file within VisualStudio), do either of the following depending on your needs. Note that valid platform values are either: x86, x64, or ia64.

Platform-Specific Project References:

<ProjectReference Include="..\SomeLibrary.csproj" Condition="'$(Platform)' == 'x64'">

    <Project>{GUID of existing proj ref goes here...}</Project>

    <Name>SomeLibrary</Name>

</ProjectReference>

Platform-Specific Binary (.dll) References:

<Reference Include="SomeDll, Version=..., Culture=..., PublicKeyToken=..., processorArchitecture=x86" Condition="'$(Platform)' == 'x86'" />

    <SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>

    <HintPath>C:\MyAppReferences\x86\SomeLibrary.dll</HintPath>

</Reference>

<Reference Include="SomeDll, Version=..., Culture=..., PublicKeyToken=..., processorArchitecture=x64" Condition="'$(Platform)' == 'x64'" />

    <SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>

    <HintPath>C:\MyAppReferences\x64\SomeLibrary.dll</HintPath>

</Reference>

Want to have "WinDbg and SOS-like" features in VisualStudio?

While I've become adept at using WinDbg and all of it's extensions to do post-mortem crash-dump analysis, I've not yet ventured down the path of live-debugging strictly with WinDbg.  Maybe I'm dense, but it's anything but intuitive to me.  Call me "new-school" but there's just something about having a real UI while debugging that makes me more productive.

So, if you've ever needed to use some functionality of WinDbg or SOS (and any of the other extensions) while debugging in VisualStudio, there is some hope...

I've added 2 feature suggestions on the Microsoft Connect website for two features:

1. View an object's rooted references at runtime - https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/637376/add-feature-to-debugger-to-view-an-objects-rooted-references
2. View an object's memory footprint/usage - https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/637373/add-feature-to-debugger-to-view-an-objects-memory-footprint-usage

If either of these are something you'd like to see in an upcoming version of VisualStudio, please click the links above and vote for them!


As a side note, if you can't wait for the next version of VisualStudio, there are 2 different workarounds in the meantime:

1. Load SOS into the Immediate Window as documented here:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/yy6d2sxs.aspx
2. The other option is to stop at a breakpoint in VisualStudio, and then attach WinDbg in "non-invasive" mode.

While these workarounds seem to be mildly satisfactory, it'd be great if these features were already built in to the VS Debugger - so vote!