Edit

Options dialog box: Environment > General

  • Article

Use this page to change color themes, status bar settings, and file extension associations, among other options, for the integrated development environment (IDE). You can access the Options dialog box by opening the Tools menu, choosing Options, opening the Environment folder and then choosing the General page.

Visual Experience

Color Theme

Choose the Blue, Blue (Extra Contrast), Dark, or Light color theme for the IDE.

You can also choose to use the theme that Windows uses by selecting Use system setting.

You can install additional predefined themes and create custom themes by downloading and installing the Visual Studio Color Theme Designer for the version that you're currently using, as follows:

After you install this tool, additional color themes appear in the Color Theme list box.

Note

Want even more themes to choose from? Check out the wide range of custom themes on the Visual Studio Marketplace. And to see examples of new Visual Studio 2022 custom themes based on VS Code, take a look at the Introducing a collection of new Visual Studio themes blog post.

Use Windows High Contrast settings

By default, Visual Studio uses the Windows High Contrast settings. You can toggle this off but you must then restart your computer.

Apply title case styling to menu bar

Menus use title case styling by default. Uncheck this option to use all uppercase styling instead.

Optimize rendering for screens with different pixel densities (requires restart)

This option enables or disables per-monitor dots per inch (DPI) awareness (or PMA). When PMA is enabled, the Visual Studio user interface appears crisp in any monitor display scale factor and DPI configuration, including across multiple monitors. To enable PMA, you need Windows 10 April 2018 Update or later and .NET Framework 4.8 or later. (This option appears greyed out if those two prerequisites are not met.)

Tip

  • Windows 10 has a setting that says Let Windows try to fix apps so they're not blurry. Turning that Windows setting on has negligible effect if you have the Optimize rendering for screens with different pixel densities option checked. (This setting is not available in Windows 11. For more information about Windows 11, see Windows 11 overview.)
  • Windows 10 also includes a Program Compatibility Troubleshooter. We don't recommend trying to fix the appearance of Visual Studio by using that troubleshooter. (This feature is not available in Windows 11. For more information about Windows 11, see Windows 11 overview.)

Automatically adjust visual experience based on client performance

Specifies whether Visual Studio sets the adjustment to the visual experience automatically or you set the adjustment explicitly. This adjustment may change the display of colors from gradients to flat colors, or it may restrict the use of animations in menus or popup windows.

Enable rich client experience

Enables the full visual experience of Visual Studio, including gradients and animations. Clear this option when using Remote Desktop connections or older graphics adapters, because these features may have poor performance in those cases. This option is available only when you clear the Automatically adjust visual experience based on client option.

Use hardware graphics acceleration if available

Uses hardware graphics acceleration if it is available, rather than software acceleration.

Other

Items to show in Window menu

Customizes the number of windows that appear in the Windows list of the Window menu. Enter a number between 1 and 24. The default value is 10.

Items shown in recently used lists

Customizes the number of most recently used projects and files that appear on the File menu. Enter a number between 1 and 24. The default value is 10. This is an easy way to retrieve recently used projects and files.

Show status bar

Displays the status bar. The status bar is located at the bottom of the IDE window and displays information about the progress of ongoing operations.

Close button affects active tool window only

Specifies that when the Close button is clicked, only the tool window that has focus is closed and not all of the tool windows in the docked set. By default, this option is selected.

Auto Hide button affects active tool window only

Specifies that when the Auto Hide button is clicked, only the tool window that has focus is hidden automatically and not all of the tool windows in the docked set. By default, this option is not selected.

On startup, open

Customizes a different default action when Visual Studio starts up. In the On startup, open list, choose from Start window (which lets you open a new or existing project), Most recent solution, or Empty environment.

See also