New tab group commands

The NewGroup add-in adds the New horizontal/vertical tab group commands to the Tabs Studio context menu for the selected tab/extension if commands are available. For example, the New horizontal tab group command is not available when vertical tab groups already created and both commands are not available when there is only one tab in a selected group. In Tabs Studio you can open a tab context menu without making the tab selected – in this case the two new commands are not shown as it is much harder to determine if they should be available in this case.

Download the NewGroup add-in for VS 2010.

In Visual Studio 2010 (CLR v4) if you try to run Tabs Studio v2.0.5 from a network share you get error number 80131515:

Tabs Studio add-in failed to load with error 80131515 in VS 2010

<configuration>
   <runtime>
      <loadFromRemoteSources enabled="true"/>
   </runtime>
</configuration>

Plus you have to upgrade to Tabs Studio v2.0.6 that workarounds Assembly.Location throws ArgumentException.

Another potential problem is when you download Tabs Studio add-ins to your computer for Visual Studio 2010 from the Internet they may end up blocked by Windows (it is not a problem for Visual Studio 2008):

Saver add-in marked as a file from another computer

Blocked Saver add-in loading error in VS 2010

General Document Tab Well Options

Color Coding Document Tab Well Options

The Start Page tab after Power Tools installation

Multiple rows of pinned tabs

Tabs can be arranged vertically, to the left of the code window. When needed pinned tabs take several columns:

Vertical tabs

Two columns of vertical tabs

In addition to the standard tab list drop down for hidden tabs, “Visual Studio 2003 tab scrollers” can be enabled:

The standard drop down and Visual Studio 2003 tab scrollers

I couldn’t make Remove tabs by usage order to remove tabs. All other options, I think, are self explanatory.

Tabs Studio is not currently compatible with this extension (generates null reference exception at startup). I will see whether it can be fixed.

Update: Tabs Studio v2.0.5 released with Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power Tools support (read more about how it is supported).

The following information is logged: OS version, VS version, loaded dlls (updated every 10 seconds), VS command/document/solution/window events, Tabs Studio events, WPF warnings. I try to collect as little personal data as possible. For example, instead of file names only extensions are logged and instead of project names only project types are logged.

Each Visual Studio session is logged in a separate file. Log file names look like “Troubleshooter January 24, 21_20_01 Part 0.txt” where “January 24, 21_20_01″ is the time of Visual Studio start. If log file size exceeds 50 MB, a file for the next log part is created. Log files are created in the “LocalApplicationData\Sergey Vlasov\Tabs Studio” folder.

Troubleshooter installer installs the add-in for VS 2008 and creates a desktop shortcut to the logs folder.

Troubleshooter v1.0.1 and source code (including WiX based installer) are available. I think Visual Studio events subscription is the most interesting part of the source code for those interested in extending Visual Studio functionality.

<Style x:Key="DefaultTabsStyle" TargetType="TabsStudio:Tabs">
  <Setter Property="Margin" Value="1,0,1,0"/>
</Style>

It makes transition between Tabs Studio tabs and Visual Studio border under the tabs in the left and right corners smooth:

Left tab margin

White lines to the left and to the right of the tabs

<Style TargetType="TabsStudio:Tabs" BasedOn="{StaticResource DefaultTabsStyle}">
  <Setter Property="Margin" Value="0,0,0,0"/>
</Style>

Excessive tabs margins removed

<Style TargetType="TabsStudio:Tabs" BasedOn="{StaticResource DefaultTabsStyle}">
  <Setter Property="Background" Value="#293955"/>
</Style>

Dark blue tabs background