3.4. Importing and Exporting Settings

Once you have the IDE in exactly the configuration you want, you may want to back up the settings for future use. You can do this by exporting the IDE settings to a file that can then be used to restore the settings or even transfer them to a series of Visual Studio 2008 installations, so that they all share the same IDE setup.

The Environment Import and Export Settings node in the Options dialog enables you to specify a team settings file. This can be located on a network share, and Visual Studio 2008 will automatically apply new settings if the file changes.

To export the current configuration, select Tools Import and Export Settings to start the Import and Export Settings Wizard, shown in Figure 3-18. The first step in the wizard is to select the Export option and which settings are to be backed up during the export procedure.

Figure 3.18. Figure 3-18

As shown in Figure 3-18, a variety of grouped options can be exported. The screenshot shows the Options section expanded, revealing that the Debugging and Projects settings will be backed up along with the Text Editor and Windows Forms Designer configurations. As the small exclamation icons indicate, some settings are not included in the export by default, because they contain information that may infringe on your privacy. You will need to select these sections manually if you wish them to be included in the backup. Once you have selected the settings you want to export, you can progress through the rest of the wizard, which might take a few minutes depending on the number of settings being exported.

Importing a settings file is just as easy. The same wizard is used, but you select the Import option on the first screen. Rather than simply overwriting the current configuration, the wizard enables you to back up the current setup first (see Figure 3-19).

Figure 3.19. Figure 3-19

You can then select from a list of preset configuration files — the same set of files from which you can choose when you first start Visual Studio 2008 — or browse to a settings file that you created previously. Once the settings file has been chosen, you can then choose to import only certain sections of the configuration, or import the whole lot.

The wizard excludes some sections by default, such as External Tools or Command Aliases, so that you don't inadvertently overwrite customized settings. Make sure you select these sections if you want to do a full restore.

If you just want to restore the configuration of Visual Studio 2008 to one of the default presets, you can choose the Reset All Settings option in the opening screen of the wizard, rather than go through the import process.