Navigating backward and forward with the mouse in Visual Studio 2008

Question

My install of Visual Studio 2008 does not support IE style back and forward navigation withe the mouse in the C# code editor.

Searches show that multiple people have run into this problem but I have yet to find a correct solution.

There's even a VS add-in hack just to work around the "bug".

Any idea why this functionality fails for some users and how to fix it?

Answer 1

You can mitigate the problem by AutoHotKey tool (free, open source).

Let's assume your Visual Studio 2008 has these editor commands and their respective shortcuts:

• View.NavigateBackward = Ctrl+-
• View.NavigateForward = Ctrl+Shift+-

You should be able to verify these shortcuts in keyboard options. Verified? Let's proceed.

So will you be just fine if your mouse will send these keyboard shortcuts if the Visual Studio's main window is active?

Then install the tool and add the following two mappings:

XButton1::^-
XButton2::^+-

These correspond to above keyboard shortcuts: ^ = Ctrl, + = Shift, - = -

Using AutoHotKey icon in notification area, reload definition file you just updated. Now your mouse buttons should produce the above shortcuts. Test them. If they work for you in Visual Studio editor, you can limit them only to Visual Studio main window, otherwise they work across the entire desktop:

SetTitleMatchMode, RegEx
#IfWinActive, .*- Microsoft Visual Studio

XButton1::^-
XButton2::^+-

#IfWinActive

Feel free to adjust title-matching regex if needed.
Do not forget to reload definitions file to apply any changes you made.

Bonus:
And here are some other handy operations if you are holding Shift or Ctrl:
(You have those mouse buttons, let's use them... for commands across the entire desktop.)

+XButton1::^c
+XButton2::^v
^XButton1::^x
^XButton2::^z

(Letters must be lowercase, because uppercase means Shift+letter.)
(And always make sure you are running AHK elevated (as administrator.))

Enjoy!