---
title: "A VS.NET 2003 Registry Tweaker Don Could Use"
url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2003/4/30/a-vsnet-2003-registry-tweaker-don-could-use.md"
canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2003/4/30/a-vsnet-2003-registry-tweaker-don-could-use.html"
published: "2003-04-30T15:48:00"
updated: "2003-04-30T15:48:00"
tags: [".Net Original", "Tips & Tricks"]
author: "Roy Osherove"
description: "Since Don was writing on how you can tweak the registry in order to be able to ShellExecute VS.NET associated files into an open instance of VS.NET(instead of a new one each time), I decided to take the 'challenge' and…"
usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)."
license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
---

# A VS.NET 2003 Registry Tweaker Don Could Use

By Roy Osherove April 30, 2003 In [.Net Original](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-original), [Tips & Tricks](https://osherove.com/blog/category/tips-tricks)

**Historical article** · Originally published April 30, 2003; technical details may be outdated.

Since Don was writing on [how you can tweak the registry](http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/dbox/spoutletex.aspx?key=2003-04-25T06:03:43Z) in order to be able to ShellExecute VS.NET associated files into an open instance of VS.NET(instead of a new one each time),

I decided to take the 'challenge' and came up with this:

[](http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/VSNetRegHelper.asp)

- [Download source files - 74 Kb](http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/VSNetRegHelper/VSNetRegHelper_src.zip)
- [Download demo project - 8 Kb](http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/VSNetRegHelper/VSNetHelper_Demo.zip)

    ## "Introduction

    Don Box [Commented](http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/dbox/spoutletex.aspx?key=2003-04-25T06:03:43Z) about the fact that when he double clicks VS.NET associated files in his explorer, Those files are opened using a new instance of VS.NET, even though there is an existing instance of the editor. He also pointed out a way in which to make those files load within the active instance of the VS.NET. It is done by adding a simple suffix to the value of registry keys associated with those files in the registry.

    However, This process is very cumbersome. So I decided to make a program solely for this purpose. This program can be customized to change a user defined registry key, and an xml list of files that will be changed. The user can also revert this process.

    .

    ."

    You can download the program and the code from [CodeProject.](http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/VSNetRegHelper.asp) (No warrenty! This is just a simple utility - nothing more)

## More in .Net Original

[All posts in .Net Original](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-original)

- May 1, 2003

    ### [EchoStream Class](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/5/1/echostream-class.html)

- May 1, 2003

    ### [More VS.NET Tips & Tricks](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/5/1/more-vsnet-tips-amp-tricks.html)

- Apr 30, 2003

    ### [Advanced Dataset Helper Classes](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/4/30/advanced-dataset-helper-classes.html)

- Apr 28, 2003

    ### [ASP.NET Authentication Question + Answer](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/4/28/aspnet-authentication-question-answer.html)


---

## About the author

**Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery.

### Sites

- [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership.
- [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts.
- [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin.
- [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model.
- [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps.
- [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes).

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### Contact

- Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7

### License

Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/