How to Disable the IDE Navigator

Keyboard:  CTRL + TAB; CTRL + SHIFT + TAB
Command:  Window.NextDocumentWindow; Window.PreviousDocumentWindow
Versions:  2008,2010
Published:  9/17/2010
Code:  vstipEnv0039

 

Make sure to check out the Windows Phone Developer Portal! 

 

By default, if you press CTRL + TAB you will get the IDE Navigator:

 

 

Some people don't like this feature and, instead, would like to just iterate through open document tabs:

 

This is easily done by binding CTRL + TAB and CTRL + SHIFT + TAB to a different set of commands.  If we go to Tools -> Options -> Environment -> Keyboard we can see that CTRL + TAB is bound to Window.NextDocumentWindowNav:

 

 

If we assign CTRL + TAB to Window.NextDocumentWindow instead:

 

 

The IDE Navigator will not show up anymore and instead CTRL + TAB will iterate through the open document tabs.  If you like this then you will want to bind CTRL + SHIFT + TAB to Window.PreviousDocumentWindow:

 

 

You can always reverse the process and re-bind the shortcut keys to their old settings if you don't like the new setup.

Comments

• Anonymous
  September 17, 2010
  In VS2008, I resort to CTRL + F6 and CTRL + SHIFT + F6 to achieve same functionality? Are these shortcuts still available on VS2010? Cheers.

• Anonymous
  September 17, 2010
  Hey Luciano :) Those keys are still available however most people I talk to don't like the distance between those keys so this option is attractive to them. Z

• Anonymous
  January 13, 2011
  Awesome, exactly what I was looking for.  Now how can I disable the tabs at the top of the editor window?

• Anonymous
  February 14, 2011
  James -- I don't know of any way to disable the File Tab Channel. Z

• Anonymous
  April 16, 2013
  Window.PreviousDocumentWindow and Window.NextDocumentWindow not working properly!

• Anonymous
  April 16, 2013
  Coffee2013, What version of VS are you using? This feature may not work anymore in VS2012. Z