How can I get user type C# syntax highlighting working again in VS 2012 RC?

Question

Somehow part of my syntax highlighting for C# code has disappeared in the VS 2012 IDE. Uninstalling, rebooting, and reinstalling does nothing, nor does resetting the colors in the options dialog.

Here are some examples of items which all appear in default (black) that normally have color which don't:

• Attributes
• System classes
• My own classes

And here are some keywords that still have color:

• using
• public
• void
• var
• for

Has anyone else experienced this and managed to fix it?

Answer 1

Here is a simple solution. Go to the directory where devenv is (for 2012 RC), and type devenv.exe /setup. It will fix your problem.

devenv.exe is usually in something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE.

Edit: It has been suggested that you do this from the Visual Studio command prompt (Start>Microsoft Visual Studio>Tools>Visual Studio Command Prompt), and/or make sure your command prompt has administrator permissions.

Note for others: This has a very good chance of working for many other versions of Visual Studio, including 2008, 2010, 11 beta, ...

Answer 2

My problem was limited to having the "DateTime" type not showing up in light blue like other class names. I fixed it by simply switching back-and-forth between VS Themes. Discovered by accident. Much quicker than reset settings or repair install...

VS menu Tools -> Change Color Theme

Answer 3

This is what worked for me:

1 - delete all in C:\Users\userNAme\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\VisualStudio\11.0
2 - open vs console as administrator, and run:
      devenv.exe /setup
      devenv.exe /ResetSettings

This will reset all your environment settings.