How to fully reset all Visual Studio settings to factory defaults?
I have Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 and Visual Studio 2022 installed.
This is Community Edition, I am logged in and registered with my Microsoft Account. It is important.
I removed all "Visual Studio*" directories in my "C:\Users*".
After restarting Visual Studio it immediately shows the dialog to log into my Microsoft Account. I log in and then it imports some of my previous settings. For example — my old color theme is applied. The one particular offending setting than doesn’t show in UI is still set.
I’m afraid that uninstalling and reinstalling the program won’t help either.
The setting I want to change is "Enable new Project Properties UI" — it was available in 2022 Preview 1. After upgrading to 2022 Preview 2 it disappeared from the settings dialog and the Project Properties dialog crashes. I’m stuck with broken Preview 2 but I know if I reset the settings it would work. The problem is I don’t know how to reset settings so they would not be recovered from the cloud.
Visual Studio: Reset All Settings
If your Microsoft Visual Studio settings are all messed up and you want to reset all of them to default settings, use these steps.
1. From within Visual Studio, select the “Tools” menu, then choose “Import and Export Settings…“. 
2. Select “Reset all settings“, then select “Next“. 
3. If you wish to save your existing settings, select “Yes, save my current settings“. Otherwise select “No, just reset settings, overwriting my current settings“. Select “Next” once you have chosen. 
4. Choose the default collection of settings you wish to reset to. In most cases, you’ll want to choose “General“. Select “Finish” once you have chosen, and you’re done! 
How to reset settings in Visual Studio Code?
It’s a simple thing and I was pretty sure it’s well described, but surprisingly it is not so obvious.
Here I’ve found a detailed description of settings file. As it states it should be setting.json file located %APPDATA%\Code\User\settings.json , but in my case it’s not there.
Can someone give me some help with restoring default settings in Visual Studio Code? I’ve hidden menu bar by accident and I can’t find no way to show it back.
14 Answers 14
You can get your menu back by pressing/holding alt , you can then toggle the menu back on via the View menu.
As for your settings, you can open your user settings through the command palette:
- Press F1
- Type user settings
- Press enter
Click the «sheet» icon to open the settings.json file:
From there you can delete the file’s contents and save to reset your settings.
For a more manual route, the settings files are located in the following locations:
- Windows %APPDATA%\Code\User\settings.json
- macOS $HOME/Library/Application Support/Code/User/settings.json
- Linux $HOME/.config/Code/User/settings.json
Extensions are located in the following locations:
- Windows %USERPROFILE%\.vscode\extensions
- macOS
If you want to reset everything, go to %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Code and delete the whole folder after you uninstall the VS code, then install it again.
Also in %userprofile%\.vscode delete extensions folder in case you want to delete all extensions.
This may be overkill, but it seemed to work for me (on a Mac):
After I ran that, and restarted VSC, it showed the the "Welcome" screen, which I took to mean that it was starting from scratch.
If you want to start afresh, deleting the settings.json file from your user’s profile will do the trick.
But if you don’t want to reset everything, it is still possible through settings menu.
You can search for the setting that you want to revert back using search box.
You will see some settings with the left blue line, it means you’ve modified that one.
If you take your cursor to that setting, a gear button will appear. You can click this to restore that setting.
You can also use the drop-down below that setting and change it to default.
How to Reset Visual Studio All Settings [Proven Fixes 2023]
Are you using Visual Studio in your day-to-day life to create and develop software programs, web programs, mobile apps, or other computer programs?
But the main concern is your Visual Studio settings are all disordered or messed up.
If your Visual Studio settings are creating a live hell scenario and you are stressing over it to find a way to solve your problem, then you’ve come to the right place.
There are have some proven ways to reset the Visual Studio all settings. Sounds great, right?
In this in-depth guide, I will walk you through the steps to help you solve your problem. You will learn some of the best proven and tested methods to reset the Visual Studio settings to default settings.
Are you ready to know the methods to solve your problem?
Okay then, let’s get started.
- How to Reset Visual Studio All Settings
- 1. Use Import and Export Settings
- 2. Use Command
How to Reset Visual Studio All Settings
Microsoft has developed an integrated development environment (IDE) called Microsoft Visual Studio. It is used to create different types of computer programs, all kinds of web services, and mobile apps.
If you face any problem in your Visual Studio, such as the Visual Studio settings being disordered, you need to solve your problem by resetting the Visual Studio settings.
There are two effective and straightforward ways to reset your Visual Studio settings.
This section will show you these two different methods to help you to reset your Visual Studio settings.
You can quickly revert your current settings to default settings and solve your problem by applying these methods.
These two methods are applicable for all Visual Studio versions.
Here are the steps to reset Visual Studio all settings:
1. Use Import and Export Settings
The first tested and effective method to reset the Visual Studio settings is to use I mport and Export Settings .
This method is one of the most straightforward ways to reset your current Visual Studio settings to default settings.
You can easily reset your current Visual Studio settings by following simple steps. To do this, follow the steps below:
Here are the steps to reset your existing Visual Studio settings using the Import and Export Settings:
- Open your Visual Studio program.
- Click on the Tools at the top of the Menu bar.
- Select Import and Export Settings .
- Choose Reset all settings option on the Import and Export Settings Wizard window.
- Click on the Next button to go to the next step.
- Choose Yes, save my current settings if you want to keep your existing settings. Or,
- Select No, just reset settings, overwriting my current settings option at the bottom of the window.
- Click on the Next button.
- Select a Default Collection of Settings you want to reset.
- Click on the Finish button to reset the Visual Studio settings.
Now, your Visual Studio program’s current settings are reverted by default settings like the newly installed Visual Studio program.
2. Use Command
Another practical and proven way to reset the Visual Studio settings is to use and execute a command .
Here are the steps to reset your existing Visual Studio settings using a command:
- Open your Visual Studio program.
- Click on the File at the top of the Menu bar.
- Select Visual Studio 2022 .
- Select Developer Command Prompt for Visual Studio 2019 or Developer PowerShell for Visual Studio 2019 to open the Command Prompt dialogue box.
- Type devenv /ResetSettings or devenv /ResetSettings DefaultCollectionSpecifier command into the Command Prompt.
- Replace syntax DefaultCollectionSpecifier with the default collection of settings specifier you want to reset. Note: These commands are optional.
- For example, devenv /ResetSettings General
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Here is the list of default collection of settings specifies:
Default Collection of Settings name Collection specifier General General JavaScript JavaScript Visual Basic VB Visual C# CSharp Visual C++ VC Web Development Web Web Development (Code Only) WebCode How to Factory Reset VS Code
Want to perform a factory reset on your VS Code?
To execute a factory reset on your VS Code is a super straightforward way. Follow the steps below to perform a factory reset:
Here are the steps to complete the factory reset on your VS Code:
- Press the F1 function key on your keyboard.
- Type user settings and hit the Enter key.
- Open the settings.json file by clicking the sheet icon.
- Delete the contents and save them from resetting your settings files.
- Restart the VSCode to reset the settings.
Final Thoughts
So, you don’t need to worry about If your Visual Studio settings are disordered or messed up.
By applying the two methods I described in this post, you can quickly revert your current settings to default settings and solve your problem.
Do the solutions relieve your annoyance?
Let me know the answer in the comments section, and share this post with your friends who need it.
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