Synchronize Visual Studio settings across multiple computers

  • Makale

Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual Studio for Mac

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. 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

When you sign in to Visual Studio on multiple computers using the same personalization account, your settings can be synchronized across the computers.

Synchronized settings

By default, the following settings are synchronized:

  • Development settings. You select a collection of settings the first time you open Visual Studio, but you can change the selection anytime. For more information, see Environment settings.

  • User-defined command aliases. For more information about how to define command aliases, see Visual Studio command aliases.

  • User-defined window layouts in Window > Manage Window Layouts page.

  • The following options in the Tools > Options pages:

    • Theme and menu bar casing settings on the Environment > General options page.

    • All settings on the Environment > Fonts and Colors options page.

    • All keyboard shortcuts on the Environment > Keyboard options page.

    • All settings on the Environment > Tabs and Windows options page.

    • All settings on the Environment > StartUp options page.

    • All settings on the Text Editor options pages, for example, code style preferences.

    • All settings on the XAML Designer options pages.

Turn off synchronized settings on a particular computer

Synchronized settings for Visual Studio are turned on by default. You can turn off synchronized settings on a computer by going to the Tools > Options > Environment > Accounts page and unchecking Synchronize settings across devices when signed into Visual Studio.

As an example, if you decide not to synchronize the settings in Visual Studio on computer "A", any setting changes made on computer "A" do not appear on computer "B" or computer "C". Computers "B" and "C" will continue to synchronize with each other, but not with computer "A".

Note

If you choose not to synchronize settings by deselecting the option on the Tools > Options > Environment > Accounts page, other versions or editions of Visual Studio that you have on the same computer aren't affected. Those side-by-side installations of Visual Studio will continue to synchronize their settings (unless you uncheck the option there, too).

Synchronize settings across Visual Studio IDE products and editions

Settings are synchronized across versions and editions of Visual Studio installed side-by-side. Settings are also synchronized across Visual Studio IDE products, including Blend for Visual Studio. However, an individual Visual Studio IDE product might have its own settings that aren't shared with Visual Studio. For example, settings specific to Blend for Visual Studio on computer "A" are not shared with Visual Studio on computers "A" or "B".

Side-by-side synchronized settings

Certain settings like tool window layout aren't shared between different side-by-side installations of Visual Studio. The CurrentSettings.vssettings file in %userprofile%\Documents\Visual Studio 2017\Settings is in an installation-specific folder that is similar to %localappdata%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\15.0_xxxxxxxx\Settings.

Note

To use the new installation-specific settings, do a fresh installation. When you upgrade an existing Visual Studio installation, it uses the existing shared location.

If you currently have side-by-side installations of Visual Studio and want to use the new installation-specific settings file location, follow these steps:

  1. Upgrade to Visual Studio 2017 version 15.3 or later.

  2. Use the Import and Export Settings Wizard to export all your existing settings to some location outside of the %localappdata%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\15.0_xxxxxxxx folder.

  3. Open the Developer Command Prompt for VS 2017 and run devenv /resetuserdata.

  4. Open Visual Studio and import the saved settings from the exported settings file.

Reset synchronized settings

To reset all settings to their defaults, sign in to Visual Studio, and then select Tools > Import and Export Settings to open the Import and Export Settings Wizard. Select Reset all settings and then follow the remaining steps of the wizard.

See also