Toolbox
The Toolbox displays icons for controls and other items that you can add to Visual Studio projects. To open the Toolbox, click Toolbox on the View menu. You can dock the Toolbox, and you can pin it open or set it to Auto Hide.
Every Toolbox icon can be dragged to a design view or pasted in a code editor in the Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE). Either action adds the fundamental code to create an instance of the Toolbox item in the active project file.
The Toolbox only displays items appropriate to the type of file you are working in. The collection of available controls also depends on the .NET Framework version your project targets. By default, Visual Studio 2010 projects target the .NET Framework 4 Client Profile. This reduces the size of deployment packages by not requiring the entire .NET Framework for installation. If your project requires a control that is not supported by the Client Profile, you can set your project to target .NET Framework 4 by editing the project properties.
Note
Your computer might show different names or locations for some of the Visual Studio user interface elements in the following instructions. The Visual Studio edition that you have and the settings that you use determine these elements. For more information, see Working with Settings.
Help on Toolbox Tabs
The following documents provide more information about specific Toolbox tabs.
| Topic | Location |
|---|---|
| Data Tab, Toolbox | Visual Studio - Toolbox Controls and Components |
| Components Tab, Toolbox | Visual Studio - Toolbox Controls and Components |
| General Tab, Toolbox | Visual Studio - Toolbox Controls and Components |
| HTML Tab, Toolbox | Visual Studio - Toolbox Controls and Components |
| Windows Forms Tab, Toolbox | Windows Forms Programming |
| Data Tab, Toolbox | Visual Studio - Toolbox Controls and Components |
| Components Tab, Toolbox | Visual Studio - Toolbox Controls and Components |
| General Tab, Toolbox | Visual Studio - Toolbox Controls and Components |
| HTML Tab, Toolbox | Visual Studio - Toolbox Controls and Components |
| Standard Tab, Toolbox | Visual Web Developer |
| Standard Tab, Toolbox | Visual Web Developer |
| DataSet Tab, Toolbox | Data Access in Visual Studio |
| Dialog Editor Tab, Toolbox | Visual Studio Resource Editors |