Is it possible to configure the location of Performance Session Files (VSP) in Visual Studio 2012?

Question

Files produced by Visual Studio 2012's profiler are very large in some cases. These files have the extension ".vsp"

These files are being generated after I am starting the profiler using the "Launch Performance Wizard" under the "Analyze" menu in Visual Studio 2012 Professional. Visual Studio is creating VSP files for analysis in the same directory as the solution (.sln) file.

My projects are stored on a somewhat small (only 100GB) SSD disk and Visual Studio rapidly fills them up.

I have a much larger (2TB) spinning disk that I would like Visual Studio to use for the profiler.

Short of moving the entire solution to the larger, slower data drive ... Is it possible to configure the location of Performance Session Files (VSP) in Visual Studio 2012?

I have found ways to set a path AFTER the VSP files are generated, but seems only to impact the location for the filtered reports.

Until I can find a way to configure the storage location BEFORE the VSP file is generated, I will be limited to profiling sessions under 20GB (my free space on the drive that VS is defaulting to.) With the instrumentation tool, 20GB is only a few minutes of heavy use of the application.

Answer 1

There is an HowTo in the MSDN site: Set Profiling Data File Name Options. It refers to Visual Studio 2015, but worked for me in Visual Studio 2013.

Shortly:

• Open the Performance Explorer window from Analyze -> Windows
• Right-click the name of the performance session, and then click Properties
• Click General
• Under Report, you'll find settings about report location