How to Export/Import Toolbars in Visual Studio

Question

I export my settings in Visual Studio and if I ever move to a new machine or have problems, I use those backed up settings to restore Visual Studio to the way I like it. It also

Answer 1

I have not tried it, but "Tools\Import and Export Settings..." maybe will let you export a .vssettings file you can then take to another box.

See also

http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2005/04/19/409887.aspx

and other Sara 'export' tips.

Answer 2

I have finally found the solution to this. There is a known bug in Visual Studio and there are two workarounds given. The first workaround does not apply, but the second worked.

To Backup your toolbars:

Copy the file CmdUI.PRF from the path %AppData%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\X.Y\1033 to the same directory as your exported .settings file. where X.Y is either of 8.0, 9.0, 10.0 or 11.0 depending on your visual studio version (2005, 2008, 2010 and 2012 respectively).

To Restore your toolbars:

Make sure Visual Studio is closed and copy the backed up file back to the original location.

Answer 3

For the benefit of others, as you mentioned this feature doesn't seem to be supported across versions of Visual Studio, presumably because of a change in the DTD/XSD for the settings file? At any rate, here's where the settings for your custom toolbars lie in the "Import and Export Settings..." dialog:

Note: Your options may look different, depending on the settings you exported.