Quick Launch, Environment, Options Dialog Box
Note
This article applies to Visual Studio 2015. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here
You can use Quick Launch to quickly search and execute actions for IDE assets such as options, templates, menus. You can't use Quick Launch to search for code and symbols. The Quick Launch search box is located at the top-right corner of the menu bar and is accessible by choosing the Ctrl+Q keys. Simply enter your search string in the box. To search for strings that contain @, use '@@'.
Quick Launch is enabled by default when you install Visual Studio. On the menu bar, you can show or hide Quick Launch by choosing Tools, Options. Expand the Environments node, and then choose Quick Launch. Select or clear the Enable Quick Launch check box. You can also enable or disable search categories on this page.
Category List
Quick Launch search results appear in four categories: Most Recently Used, Menus, Options, and Open Documents, along with the number of items in the category. To traverse through search results by category, choose the Ctrl+Q keys to show all the results from the next category. After the last category appears, Ctrl+Q shows you a few results from each category. You can use Ctrl+Shift+Q to navigate through the categories in reverse order. To view all the search results under a category, choose the category name.
You can use the following shortcuts to limit your search to specific categories.
| Category | Shortcut | Shortcut Description |
|---|---|---|
| Most recently used | @mru For example, @mru font |
Displays up to five of the items that you Most Recently Used. |
| Menus | @menu For example, @menu font |
Limits the search to menu items. |
| Options | @opt For example, @opt font |
Limits the search to settings in the Options dialog box. |
| Documents | @doc For example, @doc font |
Limits the search to file names and paths of open documents for the search criteria, but doesn't search the text inside the files themselves. |
Note
You can change the shortcut keys on the General, Keyboard page in the Options dialog box.
Show Previous Results
By default, the search term that you enter is not persisted between search sessions. The search string is cleared if you search for a term, move the cursor outside the Quick Launch area, and then go back. To retain the search results, go to the Options dialog box, choose Quick Launch, and then select the Show search results from previous search when Quick Launch is activated. check box. The next time you do a search, leave the Quick Launch area, and come back, Quick Launch will retain the search term last used and also show you the search results.
For the most recent tips and tricks for using Quick Launch, see The Visual Studio Blog.
See Also
General User Interface Elements (Visual Studio) Environment Options Dialog Box