Tip 2.25: How to customize what directory the File–Open–File dialog box opens to

“Visual Studio Tips, 251 ways to improve your Productivity in Visual Studio“, courtesy of ‘Sara Ford’

Sara Ford’s Blog

This tip is pretty straightforward. Under Tools–Options–Environment–Documents, there’s the Open File Using Directory Of Currently Active Document option. When she first read this option, it took her a few seconds to think, “What’s the open file thingy?” It’s referring to the File–Open–File dialog box.

If you have this option checked, you’ll open to the directory of the currently active document in the editor (the doc with the focus), as shown in the next image.

If you do not have this option checked, the File–Open–File dialog directory displays content as an MRU (most-recently used) list, opening to the last directory used to open a file.

Happy Programming! =)