Windows Forms
A set of .NET Framework managed libraries for developing graphical user interfaces.
1,905 questions
Try right clicking in the toolbox and see if Reset Toolbox is there, if so try it.
Toolbox has no items
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(147.20000000000002, 5%, 24%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EC%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
cshermak
1
Reputation point
Visual Studio 22 Windows Forms App has the following message in the Toolbox, "There are no usable controls in this group. Drag an item onto this text to add it to the toolbox." I have tried the reset toolbox and choosing items but neither worked. Also tried devenv.exe /SafeMode and /ResetSettings and that didn't work. I have Net.Core 6.0 selected and tried going back to the framework 4.8. I was also trying Blazor out and there wasn't any components there either. How do I get Visual Studio Toolbox functional again?
Windows Forms
Visual Studio
Visual Studio
A family of Microsoft suites of integrated development tools for building applications for Windows, the web and mobile devices.
5,239 questions
{count} votes
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Viorel 118.4K Reputation points2022-01-05T17:14:16.593+00:00 Did you open the form by double-cliking it (e.g. Form1.cs) in Solution Explorer?
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(249.60000000000002, 10%, 34%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EAX%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Anna Xiu-MSFT 30,011 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor2022-01-06T09:55:22.357+00:00 Can you share us more details such as screenshots? Have you tried to right click on Toolbox and select “Show All”?
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(153.6, 57.99999999999999%, 24%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ES9%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
SeanD-9054 101 Reputation points2022-06-10T17:43:24.583+00:00 Is there still no resolution to this problem?
Sean -
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(195.2, 28.999999999999996%, 28%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EMR%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Mark Ronollo 0 Reputation points2023-09-05T13:52:42.07+00:00 Similar issues... I started with a xaml (WPF) project, then turned on Enable Windows Forms for this project. This allowed me to add a WinForm (MDI) but when i tried to add controls like a menustrip the toolbox showed up empty.
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Mark Ronollo 0 Reputation points
2023-09-05T14:00:40.2166667+00:00 this is killing me - it would be something stupid like show all - thanks Anna!
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6 answers
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Karen Payne MVP 35,446 Reputation points2022-01-05T17:03:52.227+00:00 -
Asad Naeem 1 Reputation point2022-07-06T09:53:32.58+00:00 It works great.
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(16, 84%, 11%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ELS%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Lloyd Sheen 1,481 Reputation points2023-05-23T21:40:55.66+00:00 VS 2022 is by far the worst version of this tool. It has so many problems and this is just one of them. Items one day and none the next. I would love to have someone from the VS team do a Teams with me as I would love to hear the excuses
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(214.4, 85%, 30%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EAS%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Andrés J 0 Reputation points2024-03-31T17:41:31.91+00:00 Was a .net8.0 issue. I just created a new project with .net6.0 and i have all de items available.
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(115.19999999999999, 43%, 21%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ERZ%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Roman Zakharchuk 0 Reputation points2024-06-07T22:42:38.9133333+00:00 Not help for me
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(96, 7.000000000000001%, 19%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EIG%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Ishrar Godil 20 Reputation points2023-12-27T13:39:34.6533333+00:00 After clicking "Show All" controls appear but all are disabled. I am into a WinForm Application but it shows XAML controls in Show All mode.
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(57.599999999999994, 47%, 15%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ED%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Damian 0 Reputation points2024-02-25T02:43:03.02+00:00 Thanks it work .
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Roman Zakharchuk 0 Reputation points
2024-06-07T22:43:06.76+00:00 It works, but it is a hack.
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(256, 64%, 34%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EW%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
WickIT 5 Reputation points2024-06-06T00:09:25.2133333+00:00 Restarting VS (as Admin) helped.
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Roman Zakharchuk 0 Reputation points
2024-06-07T22:41:55.5333333+00:00 Not help for me
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(48, 98%, 14%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EDB%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Dan Byne 0 Reputation points2024-08-23T08:48:04.4833333+00:00 That worked for me, not sure why it needs to be run as admin for it to work, I guess some permission error somewhere after one of the updates maybe.
Thanks again, would have driven me crazy with this one
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cshermak 1 Reputation point
2022-01-05T17:50:58.373+00:00 I tried that and it didn't work. I think it could be a .Net6.0 issue. I deleted the project and re-created as framework 4.8 and I have items available in the toolbox for a forms app. Blazor wasm using .Net6.0 doesn't show any items in the toolbox with the Index.razor page open.
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Karen Payne MVP 35,446 Reputation points
2022-01-05T18:02:33.843+00:00 Next thing to do is report this to Microsoft in the feedback/report a problem button in the IDE.
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cshermak 1 Reputation point
2022-01-26T10:03:43.813+00:00 Thank you for response. I ended up un-installing vs2022 and vs2019. Re-install vs2022 and the problem went away. I should have tried this instead of posting. Thanks!
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(252.8, 70%, 34%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EJJ%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Javad Jorian 1 Reputation point2022-06-07T06:40:33.077+00:00 run visual studio installer => repair =>restart computer its OK
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(188.79999999999998, 53%, 28%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EM%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
molnarorso 0 Reputation points2023-08-22T22:44:19.4866667+00:00 Upgraded a Windows Forms project to .NET 7.0 / C# 11.0, and now have the same problem: ToolBox is empty and "Reset Toolbox" does not help.
Which are the latest versions of .NET and C# where this bug is not coming?