Visual Studio 2010 Get Started: Customize Start Page
Hello, I am Hongye Sun from MSDN forum support team. Today, I will show you how to customize the start page in VS 2010. Two UI elements will be added into the start page:
- A button which executes VS command and open MSDN forums link
- A customized WPF user control which connects to Twitter
Enable Start Page Customization
By default settings, VS 2010 uses file at %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\StartPages\en\StartPage.xaml
You can change the setting in options page: Environment –> Startup -> Customize Start Page –> Documents\Visual Studio 2010\StartPages\StartPage.xaml
Add a command button
In the %UserProfile%\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\StartPages folder, open StartPage.csproj file in Visual Studio, and open StartPage.xaml file.
There are mainly three sections in the start page:
1. Command Buttons
2. Recent Projects
3. Center Content
To add a new button to command buttons section. Copy and paste the following XAML code:
1: <vs:ImageButton
2: Grid.Row="6"
3: Grid.Column="0"
4: x:Uid="OpenForumButton"
5: Margin="15,2,0,2"
6: Width="Auto"
7: Content="Open MSDN Forums..."
8: Style="{DynamicResource StartPage.ProjectCommand.ButtonStyle}"
9: Command="{x:Static vs:VSCommands.ExecuteCommand}" CommandParameter="View.WebBrowser https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums"
10: ImageNormal="pack://application:,,,/Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.UI;component/Images/StartPage/OpenProject.png"
11: ImageHover="pack://application:,,,/Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.UI;component/Images/StartPage/OpenProjectMouseOver.png"
12: ImagePressed="pack://application:,,,/Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.UI;component/Images/StartPage/OpenProjectMouseDown.png">
13: </vs:ImageButton>
The Command and CommandParameter shows it will execute View.WebBrowser command to navigate browser to MSDN forum site.
Add custom WPF Twitter user control
To save the time, I follow Rich’s blog to build a WPF twitter user control.
In order to add the control into xaml code into startpage.xaml file.
In file header:
1: <Grid xmlns:my="clr-namespace:TwitterWPFControl;assembly=TwitterWPFControl"
2: xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
3: xmlns:x="https://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
4: xmlns:vs="clr-namespace:Microsoft.VisualStudio.PlatformUI;assembly=Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.UI"
5: mc:Ignorable="d"
6: xmlns:d="https://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
7: xmlns:mc="https://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" d:DesignHeight="600" d:DesignWidth="800">
In the Center Content:
1: <TabItem Header="Twitter">
2: <Grid >
3: <my:TwitterControl></my:TwitterControl>
4: </Grid>
5: </TabItem>
Put the TwitterWPFControl assembly into %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\Components folder