Visual studio TEST missing from the main menu

Question

After updating to visual studio 2013, update 4, the TEST option is missing from my screen, I thought Visual Studio update 5 would fix it, but it did not. "TEST" is missing from my options and I don't know why.

I have tried resetting the settings, it does not help, reset settings:

I cannot add test via TOOLS -> CUSTOMIZE -> COMMANDS -> ADD COMMAND, it is not there.

Answer 1

What edition of Visual Studio are you working with? Have you ever had the TEST menu present?

Yes, I've run tests before, I'm currently at Visual Studio 2013.5 - Premium flavor

@OP answered:

I don't know why, but uninstalling Office Tools extension seems to have fixed it.

---

I wanted to provide an explanation for why Menu's can go missing. One reason for this is when you install another component for Visual Studio, like Team Foundation Client or in this case Office Tools extension. They "may" automatically select a different setting. To check if this is the problem:

In Visual Studio click Tools Menu > Import and Export Settings:

See here how Project Management Settings is selected, that is the wrong setting if you're a Developer.

To see the missing developer menu's reset it back to a developer setting.

Ref: http://blog.accentient.com/a-visual-studio-mystery-the-case-of-the-missing-menu-items/

Answer 2

I had the same issue in VS 2015 Update 2 Community and the culprit apparently was AppInsights extension (https://github.com/dotnet/roslyn/issues/11653). To provide some detail:

• Noticed test menu missing in existing solution where I previously ran tests
• Made a blank test project, still no test menu
• closed vs and reopened. Still not test menu
• Got error referencing C:\Users{username}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\ActivityLog.xml
• Last error in there was NullReferenceException in CodeLensIndicatorService
• Googling that found link above, tieing to this add-in.
• disabling it fixed the issue and test menu not appears and I can run tests.

Forgive me if I complain a bit, but if any VS team is reading: Under no circumstances should an add-in failing cause a built-in menu to not appear. As much as this is a bug caused by the the various add-ins, it is also a flaw in VS IMO- and one that is not trivial for end-users to connect the dots on.