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Options dialog box: Windows Forms Designer

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The Windows Forms Designer options page lets you set preferences for the grids and other features of the Windows Forms Designer in Visual Studio. Open the Options dialog box from the Tools menu.

.NET Core

Connection timeout (sec)
Controls the Windows Forms out-of-process designer connection timeout, as measured in seconds. The minimum value is 120 seconds.

Logging Level
Controls the logging level for the Windows Forms out-of-process designer. The options include None, Informational, Warnings, Errors, and Verbose.

Code Generation Settings

Optimized Code Generation
Enables optimized code generation. Some controls may not be compatible with this mode. For this change to take effect, Visual Studio must be closed and reopened.

High-DPI Support

DPI Scaling Notifications
Show a message in Windows Form Designer that can restart Visual Studio with 100% scaling.

Layout Settings

Default Grid Cell Size
Sets the spacing, in pixels, between horizontal and vertical gridlines on the designer. The default size is 8, 8. The maximum size is 200, 200.

Layout Mode
Specifies the alignment system to use for layout. You can choose either SnapToGrid or Snaplines.

Show Grid
Specifies whether designers display the sizing grid. By default, the grid is on.

Snap to Grid
Determines whether designers will snap objects and controls to the grid. In other words, the resizing and movement of elements on the designer are constrained to the GridSize increment when this feature is turned on. Having SnapToGrid turned on makes it easier to line up the various aspects of the user interface precisely but limits the freedom with which one can place controls. By default, SnapToGrid is turned on.

Object Bound Smart Tag Settings

Automatically Open Smart Tags
Determines whether controls and components display smart tags. Not all controls and components support smart tags.

Refactoring

Enable Refactoring on Rename
When set to true, a rename refactoring operation is performed when you rename a component from the Properties window or Document Outline window.

Toolbox

Automatically Populate Toolbox
Determines whether the Toolbox window is automatically populated with components and controls built by the project.