Visual Studio Keyboard Shortcuts disappear

Ian Lochray 0

I have a custom VS extension which adds commands to the Tools menu. It's running in VS 2022 with C++ solutions. I use the Tools->Options menu to add shortcuts to some of these custom commands. I save and exit VS and then start it up again witheth same solution. All is as expected - the shortcuts are still present. I exit VS and open a second solution. Again, all is good. Finally, I open a second instance of VS in parallel with either of the two presvious solutions. Now the shortcuts have disappeared from BOTH instances of VS. I can see that the ApplicationPrivateSettings.xml is being updated. When the error happens, the ".A" entry for the command is removed but the ".R" entry is present.

Can anyone explain this behaviour? I suspect that the custom extension is wiping the shortcut but I can't explain why it only happens when there is a second VS instance open.

Finally, in C# (the extension is written in C#), how can I read the existing shortcuts that are configured?

Tianyu Sun-MSFT 31,086 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-01-17T07:19:51.09+00:00

Hello @Ian Lochray ,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum.

I tested with a newly created simple "command" extension, assigned the shortcuts to this command. I then opened three instances(also tested two instances, the results are the same) of VS, opened three different C++ projects/solutions and tested the shortcuts but didn’t reproduce the issue you got.

Perhaps the issue is related to your custom VS extension.

Does newly created simple "command" extension work on your side?

Did you try to install and test your extension in real VS instance(instead of the experimental instance)?

Did you assign the shortcuts for "Global" and are the shortcuts special(not conflict with other commands)?
Ian Lochray 0 Reputation points

2024-01-17T14:03:20.1333333+00:00

Hello, Thank you for your reply. The command extension works if I run it via the Tools menu, the only issue is that I can no longer use the shortcut. This happens in a real VS instance and for multiple users. The shortcuts are added for "Global". The VS extension creates the command extensions dynamically depending on the content of the solution. When it does so, it creates the command without any shortcut. What I can't figure out is how, when I restart VS as the only instance, it remembers what shortcuts I added via the Tools -> Options menu but, when I create a second instance it seems to lose this information.
Ian Lochray 0 Reputation points

2024-01-19T00:12:31.6933333+00:00

There seems to be an issue with the second instance of VS reading the settings from currentsettings.vssettings. Basically, it doesn't read the shortcuts. The code that creates the menu items is deleting and recreating them having first saved any shortcuts which it then re-adds. In the case of the second VS instance, the shortcuts are not read from the settings file to the menu item is re-created without them. Any idea why this might be happening? If I subsequently import the keyboard settings from the file using Tools -> Import and Export settings then the shortcuts get restored. Is this possible to implement programatically as a workaround?
Tianyu Sun-MSFT 31,086 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-01-19T09:15:45.35+00:00

Hello @Ian Lochray ,

I tested on my side, but still failed to reproduce this issue.

Can you confirm this issue also appears on a custom shortcut for a simple command(not dynamically created) on your side?
Ian Lochray 0 Reputation points

2024-01-19T20:11:24.8666667+00:00
Hello. The issue does not appear on a custom shortcut for a simple command. The reason for this is that the extension deletes and re-creates all of its entries when Visual Studio is created (there is a reason for this). Before deleting an entry the code checks the existing bindings for a command and, if there are any, saves them. On re-creation, the saved bindings are re-applied. The issue seems to lie with populating the DTE on the second invocation of Visual Studio. When there is only one instance of Visual Studio it can be repeatedly closed and re-opened and the bindings remain. When loading the extension we run:

var serviceTasks = Task.WhenAll( package.GetServiceAsync(typeof(SDTE)), package.GetServiceAsync(typeof(SVsProfferCommands)), package.GetServiceAsync(typeof(IMenuCommandService))); var services = await serviceTasks.ConfigureAwait(false);

If I look at the contents of services[0].Commands.Item(menuItem) I can see that, for a single instance, the previously saved bindings are present. When I start a second instance of Visual Studio, the bindings are not present. I can't explain this difference and this is what is causing the re-creation of the command to not contain the shortcut. ssss

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