Visual Studio / Code for Command Palette

Overview

This project provides a command palette extension for opening Visual Studio solutions and Visual Studio Code workspaces from a single, unified interface.

Features

• Optimized for Performance: Designed to remain fast and responsive, with a configurable page size. By default, it displays 8 items per page to ensure smooth interaction even with large project histories.
• Unified Launcher: Launch Visual Studio solutions, Visual Studio Code, Cursor, Google Antigravity, and Windsurf workspaces from a single, convenient interface.
• Window-Switching: If a Visual Studio solution is already open, the extension will switch to the existing window instead of opening a new instance.
• Secondary Actions: Access additional commands for each entry:
  • Copy Path: Copies the full file path of the solution, workspace, or folder to the clipboard.
  • Pin to List / Unpin from List: Pins or unpins a workspace to keep it at the top of the list.
  • Open in Explorer: Opens the solution, workspace, or folder location in the default file explorer.
  • Open in Terminal: Opens the solution, workspace, or folder location in your preferred terminal (Command Prompt or PowerShell).
  • Run as Administrator: Open the solution, workspace, or folder with administrative privileges.
  • Refresh Workspaces: Manually reloads the list of solutions and workspaces to reflect any recent changes.

Installation

Windows Store

Via Command Palette

1. Open Command Palette
2. Select "Visual Studio / Code for Command Palette"

Via Winget

1. Open Command Prompt or PowerShell
2. Run the following command:

   winget install 15722UsefulApp.WorkspaceLauncherForVSCode

Manual Installation

1. Make sure you use the latest version of PowerToys.
2. Install the application by double-clicking the .msix file.

Settings

• General

  • Show Details Panel: Toggles the visibility of the details panel on the right.
  • Page Size: Sets the number of items to display per page. (Default: 8)
  • Enable Logging: Enables diagnostic logging for troubleshooting purposes.

• Search & Appearance

  • Search By: Determines which properties to use when searching (Title, Path, or Both).
  • Sort By: Determines the sorting order of workspaces.
    • Last Used, Usage Count: The default sort order.
    • Last Used: Sorts by most recently used.
    • Usage Count: Sorts by most frequently used.
    • Alphabetical by Title: Sorts alphabetically by title.
  • Tags: Configure which informational tags are displayed for each item.
    • Show 'Type' tag: Displays whether the item is a Workspace or Folder.
    • Show 'Target' tag: Displays the target application, like Visual Studio Code or Insiders.

• Commands

  • Terminal Type: Choose the terminal to be opened with the "Open in Terminal" command.
    • PowerShell
    • Command Prompt

• Visual Studio

  • Enable Visual Studio: Enables searching for Visual Studio solutions.
  • Secondary Command: Configures the secondary action for Visual Studio items (Open in Explorer or Run as Administrator).

• Visual Studio Code

  • Enabled Installations: Choose which VS Code installations to scan for workspaces.

    • Enable Visual Studio Code: The standard user-specific installation.
    • Enable Visual Studio Code (System): The system-wide installation.
    • Enable Visual Studio Code - Insiders: The Insiders edition.
    • Enable Visual Studio Code (Custom): Custom installations found in the system's PATH.
    • Enable Visual Studio Code (Custom Path): A custom Visual Studio Code installation path. Useful for package managers like Scoop (e.g., C:\Users\<username>\scoop\apps\vscode\1.110.1) or a portable mode installation.
    • Enable Cursor: The Cursor AI code editor.
    • Enable Google Antigravity: The Google Antigravity editor.
    • Enable Windsurf: The Windsurf AI code editor.
    • Configurable Paths: You can specify custom installation paths for Visual Studio Code, Cursor, Antigravity, and Windsurf if they are not in the default locations.

  • Secondary Command: Configures the secondary action for Visual Studio Code items.

    • Open in Explorer: Opens the item's location in File Explorer.
    • Run as Administrator: Launches the item with administrative privileges.

How It Works

This extension discovers installations of Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Cursor, Google Antigravity, and Windsurf on your system.

• For Visual Studio Code, Cursor, Antigravity, and Windsurf, it reads the workspace history from their respective internal storage files (state.vscdb and storage.json).
• For Visual Studio, it uses vswhere.exe to find installations and then reads their configuration files to discover recent solutions.
• The extension also includes logic from the WindowWalker extension to detect if a solution is already open. If so, it switches to the existing Visual Studio window instead of creating a new one.

The results are then combined into a single, unified list for easy access.

For more detailed technical information about the project's architecture and components, please see the Project Guide.

Changelog

1.23.0.0

• Add support for Visual Studio Code custom installation paths
• Migrate solution to slnx format

1.22.0.0

• Add support for Cursor, Windsurf Google Antigravity editors
• Allow custom installation paths for Cursor and Antigravity

1.21.0.0

• Add option to open Visual Studio solutions in Visual Studio Code
• Add help command into refresh command context

1.9.0.0

• Native AOT compilation and trimming
• fix: WSL and Remote VS Code

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you have suggestions for improvements or new features, please open an issue or submit a pull request.