Workaround for “Visual Studio Web Request handler could not be found” when using github?

Question

When I choose "Open in Visual Studio" on github, I get the following error:

"Visual Studio Web Request handler could not be found"

I believe this is due to the git-client protocol handler not being registered properly.

There's a closed bug for VS2015 listed here but no workaround: https://github.com/github/VisualStudio/issues/140

I've tried to repair Visual Studio 2017 but that didn't fix it. Is there a workaround, perhaps by editing HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\git-client entries?

Answer 1

The solution is easy: just reassign the default handler for the git-client protocol. To do that, press the Windows-Key, enter "default apps" and select the settings page. Go down, select "Choose default apps by protocol" and look for "git-client". Click and select the Microsoft Visual Studio Web Protocol Handler Selector for VS2017.

When you click the "Open in Visual Studio" - button in Github, Visual Studio 2017 should open and you can clone the repo in Team Explorer.