11 Productivity Features For Developers in Visual Studio 2013

Peek Windows is like a browser control where you can navigate and find the terms. You can use a small promote button to open this window in full screen and escape to return to the editor. This feature is useful for becominig familiar with new types without having to leave the Visual Studio editor.

2. Solution Explorer errors

Some files in Solution Explorer are presented with a red underlined colour that indicate these files has some errors, warnings or information messages. When you hover the mouse over the specific file having the red underline then it shows you the error message in a window.

Double-click on any one error in the above to navigate to the actual line in the file. You can filter the Solution Explorer to just show the list of files with errors or warnings.

3. Structure Visualizer

This feature creates markers in the editor corresponding to various blocks in the code.

When you hover on the lines shown in the picture above it then shows you the corresponding code blocks and it allows you to quickly figure out the scope of a class.

4. Double-click to maximize windows

A quick and easy way to maximize any docked window in the Visual Studio editor is to double-click on the title bar and restore it by double-clicking again.