Visual Studio performance tips and tricks
Visual Studio performance recommendations are intended for low memory situations, which may occur in rare cases. In these situations, you can optimize certain Visual Studio features that you may not be using. The following tips aren't intended as general recommendations.
Note
If you’re having difficulty using the product because of memory issues, let us know through the feedback tool.
Use a 64-bit OS
If you upgrade your system from a 32-bit version of Windows to a 64-bit version, you expand the amount of virtual memory available to Visual Studio from 2 GB to 4 GB. A 64-bit operating system upgrade enables Visual Studio to handle larger workloads.
For more information, see Memory Limits for Windows and Windows Server releases.
Tip
Visual Studio 2022 on Windows is a 64-bit application. Earlier versions are 32-bit.
Disable automatic file restore
Visual Studio automatically reopens documents that were left open in the previous session. This automatic file restore action can prolong the times it takes to load a solution by up to 30% or more, depending on the project type and the documents being opened. Designers like Windows Forms and XAML, and some JavaScript and TypeScript files, can be slow to open.
Visual Studio notifies you in a yellow bar when automatic document restore is causing a solution to load slower. You can disable automatic file reopening by following these steps:
Select Tools > Options to open the Options dialog box.
On the Projects and Solution > General page, deselect Reopen documents on solution load.
If you disable automatic file restore, a quick way to navigate to files you want to open is by using one of the Go To commands:
For the general Go To functionality, select Edit > Go To > Go To All, or press Ctrl+T.
Jump to the last edit location in a solution using Edit > Go To > Go To Last Edit Location, or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Backspace.
Use Go To Recent File to see a list of recently visited files in a solution. Select Edit > Go To > Go To Recent File, or press Ctrl+1, Ctrl+R.
Configure debugging options
If you're typically running low on memory during debugging sessions, you can optimize performance by making one or more configuration changes.
Enable Just My Code
The simplest optimization is to enable the Just My Code feature, which only loads symbols for your project. Enabling this feature can result in a significant memory saving for debugging managed applications (.NET). This option is already enabled by default in some project types.
To enable Just My Code, choose Tools > Options > Debugging > General, and then select Enable Just My Code.
Specify symbols to load
For native debugging, loading symbol files (.pdb) is expensive in terms of memory resources. You can configure your debugger symbol settings to conserve memory. Typically, you configure the solution to only load modules from your project.
To specify symbol loading, choose Tools > Options > Debugging > Symbols.
Set the options to Load only specified modules instead of Load all modules, and then specify which modules you care to load. While debugging, you can also right-click specific modules in the Modules window to explicitly include a module in the symbol load. (To open the window while debugging, choose Debug > Windows > Modules.)
For more information, see Specify symbol and source files in the debugger.
Disable Diagnostic Tools
It's recommended that you disable CPU profiling after use. This feature can consume large amounts of resources. Once CPU profiling is enabled, this state is persisted across subsequent debug sessions, so it’s worth explicitly turning it off when done. You may save some resources by disabling the diagnostic tools while debugging if you don't need the provided features.
To disable the Diagnostic Tools, start a debugging session, select Tools > Options > Debugging > General, and then deselect the Enable Diagnostic Tools while debugging option.
For more information, see Profiling tools.
Disable tools and extensions
Some tools or extensions can be turned off to improve performance.
Tip
You can often isolate performance issues by turning off extensions one at a time and rechecking performance.
Managed language service (Roslyn)
For information about .NET Compiler Platform ("Roslyn") performance considerations, see Performance considerations for large solutions.
Disable CodeLens
Visual Studio performs a Find All References task on each method as it is displayed. CodeLens provides features such as the inline display of the number of references. The work is performed in a separate process such as ServiceHub.RoslynCodeAnalysisService32. In large solutions, or on resource-constrained systems, this feature can have a significant impact on performance. If you’re experiencing memory issues, for example, when loading a large solution on a 4-GB machine, or high CPU usage for this process, you can disable CodeLens to free up resources.
To disable CodeLens, choose Tools > Options > Text Editor > All Languages > CodeLens, and deselect the feature.
For more information, see Find code changes and other history with CodeLens.
Other tools and extensions
Disable Extensions
Extensions are additional software components added to Visual Studio that provide new functionality or extend existing functionality. Extensions can often be a source of memory resource issues. If you’re experiencing memory resource problems, try disabling extensions one at a time to see how it impacts the scenario or workflow.
To disable extensions, go to Extensions > Manage Extensions, and disable a particular extension.
Disable map mode
Map mode displays lines of code, in miniature, on the scroll bar. Map mode is enabled by default.
To disable map mode, go to Tools > Options > Text Editor > All Languages > Scroll Bars, and in the Behavior section, deselect the Use map mode for vertical scroll bar option.
Disable word wrap
Word wrap displays the portion of a long line of code that extends beyond the current width of the code editor window. Word wrap is on by default.
To disable word wrap for a project that you're currently working on, go to Edit > Advanced > Word Wrap. (You can toggle this setting by using the same menu commands.)
To disable word wrap for all projects, go to Tools > Options > General > Text Editor > All Languages > General, and in the Settings section, deselect the Word wrap option.
Disable XAML Designer
The XAML designer is enabled by default, but only consumes resources if you open a .xaml file. If you work with XAML files but don't wish to use the designer functionality, disable this feature to free up some memory.
To disable XAML Designer, go to Tools > Options > XAML Designer > Enable XAML Designer, and deselect the option.
Remove workloads
You can use the Visual Studio Installer to remove workloads that are no longer used. This action can streamline the startup and runtime cost by skipping packages and assemblies that aren’t needed anymore.
Add untracked files to local .gitignore
Visual Studio runs the Git command
git statuswith untracked files to provide a seamless experience when you add new files to a repository. When there are a large number of untracked files,git statuscan consume extra memory. To ignore these files and improve performance ofgit status, you can add these files or folders to your local .gitignore file. To access the file, go to Git > Settings > Git Repository Settings. Then, in the Git files section, select Add to create a .gitignore file, or select Edit if you already have one.Enable commit graph in Git tooling
New in Visual Studio 2022 version 17.2: If you're experiencing delays when you view your Git repository or branch history in Visual Studio, we've integrated a "commit graph" feature that can help. To use commit graph, make sure you download and install Visual Studio 2022. To learn more about commit graph, see the Supercharge your Git experience in Visual Studio blog post.
Force a garbage collection
The CLR uses a garbage collection memory management system. In this system, sometimes memory is used by objects that are no longer needed. This state is temporary; the garbage collector releases this memory based on its performance and resource usage heuristics. You can force the CLR to collect any unused memory by using a hotkey in Visual Studio. If there's a significant amount of garbage waiting for collection and you force a garbage collection, you should see the memory usage of the devenv.exe process drop in Task Manager. It’s rarely necessary to use this method. However, after an expensive operation has completed (such as a full build, debug session, or a solution open event), it can help you determine how much memory is really being used by the process. Because Visual Studio is mixed (managed & native), it’s occasionally possible for the native allocator and the garbage collector to compete for limited memory resources. Under conditions of high memory usage, it may help to force the garbage collector to run.
To force a garbage collection, use this keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F12, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F12 (press it twice).
If forcing garbage collection reliably makes your scenario work, file a report through the Visual Studio feedback tool as this behavior is likely to be a bug.
For a detailed description of the CLR garbage collector, see Fundamentals of garbage collection.