How to change the title bar text of Visual Studio

We work on several different branches of the same code, and when working on two branches at once, it can become confusing and time wasting.

Presently, the VS title bar has the text <solution-name> - Visual Studio.

Is it possible for me to write an extension that will make that text <solution-name>: <branch-name> - <Visual Studio>?

I just created a small Visual Studio extension that can help: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/f3f23845-5b1e-4811-882f-60b7181fa6d6

> This small extension will detect > whenever two instances of Visual > Studio are running and change the > window title of Visual Studio to > include the parent folder name of the > solution. It will therefore change > SolutionFolder - Microsoft Visual Studio into > SolutionFolderParent\SolutionFolder - Microsoft Visual Studio. > > This is particularly useful when > branching a solution: it becomes > possible to easily identify which > branch you are working on, in the case > where both would have the same > solution name.

Official page here: http://erwinmayer.com/labs/visual-studio-2010-extension-rename-visual-studio-window-title/

Check out latest release of VSCommands 2010 Lite. It introduced a feature called Friendly Solution Name where you can set up a regex pattern to extract branch name from folder structure and have it placed in Visual Studio main window title. More details: http://vscommands.com/releasenotes/3.6.8.0 and http://vscommands.com/releasenotes/3.6.9.0

MSDN Download Page

Trying to set MainWindow.Caption throws an exception. You have to use the Win32 SetWindowText function to change the title, but beware: Visual Studio resets the title bar text at the drop of a hat, so you should implement a Timer to keep setting your desired text. The following code from the Connect class of the add-in will permanently (or, as long as the add-in is running) keep the title bar text as "Hello World!"

public void OnConnection(object application, ext_ConnectMode connectMode, object addInInst, ref Array custom)
{
    _applicationObject = (DTE2)application;
    _addInInstance = (AddIn)addInInst;
    resetTitleTimer = new Timer(new TimerCallback(SetMainWindowTitle), "Hello world!", 0, 10);
}

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern bool SetWindowText(IntPtr hWnd, string lpString);
private void SetMainWindowTitle(object state)
{
    IntPtr hWnd = (IntPtr)_applicationObject.MainWindow.HWnd;
    SetWindowText(hWnd, "Hello World!");            
}

I added a symbolic link with a different name targeting the solution file. Open the solution with the symbolic link and the window title has the symbolic link name.

In windows: mklink BlawBranch.sln Blaw.sln

EDIT: Found that a hard link breaks if target .sln file is updated by our source control. A symbolic link doesn't have the same problem.

Just another extension to change the Visual Studio titlebar by defining it as an expression: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/2e8ebfe4-023f-4c4d-9b7a-d05bbc5cb239

The setup that makes use of a "title expression" makes this plugin quite flexible.

To be honest, I am not sure I am understanding your question correctly, but I had asked one here on SO that seems to be about a similar problem:

Working with different versions/branches of the same Visual Studio 2005 solution

Perhaps a simpler solution would be to use virtual desktops? Spacial arrangement is easier to remember, you could group any related windows with the corresponding VS, and switching would be simpler.

there is a property by name AppName for any visual studio based IDE, that should do the trick.

From http://www.helixoft.com/blog/archives/32 sets the title to the current filename. It also works on Visual Studio 10

  Private timer As System.Threading.Timer
Private ideTitle As String = Nothing
Declare Auto Function SetWindowText Lib "user32" (ByVal hWnd As System.IntPtr, _
ByVal lpstring As String) As Boolean

'''<summary>Called when any window in VS gets activated.</summary>
'''<param name="GotFocus">Window that got focus.</param>
'''<param name="LostFocus">Window that lost focus.</param>
Private Sub WindowEvents_WindowActivated(ByVal GotFocus As EnvDTE.Window, ByVal LostFocus As EnvDTE.Window) Handles WindowEvents.WindowActivated
    Try
        If timer Is Nothing Then
            ' Create timer which refreshes the caption because
            ' IDE resets the caption very often
            Dim autoEvent As New System.Threading.AutoResetEvent(False)
            Dim timerDelegate As System.Threading.TimerCallback = _
                AddressOf tick
            timer = New System.Threading.Timer(timerDelegate, autoEvent, 0, 200)
        End If

        If GotFocus.Document Is Nothing Then
            ideTitle = Nothing
        Else
            ideTitle = GotFocus.Document.FullName
            showTitle(ideTitle)
        End If
    Catch ex As System.Exception
    End Try
End Sub

''' <summary>Dispose the timer on IDE shutdown.</summary>
Public Sub DTEEvents_OnBeginShutdown() Handles DTEEvents.OnBeginShutdown
    If Not timer Is Nothing Then
        timer.Dispose()
    End If
End Sub

'''<summary>Called by timer.</summary>
Public Sub tick(ByVal state As Object)
    Try
        If Not ideTitle Is Nothing Then
            showTitle(ideTitle)
        End If
    Catch ex As System.Exception
    End Try
End Sub

'''<summary>Shows the title in main window.</summary>
Private Sub showTitle(ByVal title As String)
    SetWindowText(New System.IntPtr(DTE.MainWindow.HWnd), title & " - " & DTE.Name)
End Sub

In 2012, you have to set System.Windows.Application.Current.MainWindow.Title in order for this to work. This will update both the TaskBarItem title and the MainWindow title.

This is only possible from the main thread and since the title will get updated at various points by Visual Studio, you have to hook up to some events and reset it to whatever you wanted it to be (in my AddIn, I use some EnvDTE.SolutionEvents among others).

Hope this helps.

In the VS automation model there is

_DTE.MainWindow.Capation

which you could start with.

See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/envdte._dte.mainwindow.aspx