Visual Studio 2017 Reset Settings

Question

I have a copy of Visual Studio Enterprise 2017 that I received through my university and installed on my desktop computer. Recently, I bought a new laptop, and wanted to be able to work on my assignments and projects while I was away from home, so I downloaded Visual Studio Community 2017 to install on it. When I opened VS on my laptop for the first time, I logged into the same account as my desktop, and noticed that some of the settings were synced over between my two computers. However, this morning when I was working on my desktop, I realized that, after installing VS on my laptop, some of the settings (mainly code format settings, like using tabs vs spaces, etc) had been reset to their default values on my desktop.

It's going to be frustrating having to go back and change my settings to what they originally were. Is there a way to easily revert all my settings back to before they were reset? And is there a way to prevent this from happening in the future, if I ever install VS on a new computer?

Answer 1

For a easy restoring of your settings, export your correct settings with Tools-> Import/Export Settings. Save this file on all your devices and when something changed import the settings from this file. The change of your settings could have happen because VS thought your new installation is your main installation with your prefered settings. I work on 3 different devices and never recognised a settings change.

For a complete reset, go to tools->Import/Export Settings. There is the option for a complete wipe off all your settings. If your not sure, in the next dialog, there's a option for saveing your current settings, in case you want them back. Next you can choose the new default setting.