[visual-studio] View more than one project/solution in Visual Studio

I am new to visual studio and I am experimenting around with some Windows Services. I have created two solutions and I would like to view both of them at once. Without having to click file->recent projects to switch back and forth.

Ideally this could take place in the solution explorer and just nest the projects, but I am only able to view one solution/project at a time there.

Is there anyway to view multiple solutions/projects in Visual Studio?

After a long research and different experiments the easiest way "FOR MAC USERS" is to create a script:

open -a "Visual Studio" \
"path to first sln" \
"path to second sln" \
...

:D

Just right click on the Visual Studio icon and then select "New Window" from the contextual toolbar that appears on the bottom in Windows 8. A new instance of Visual Studio will launch and then you can open your second project.

Two ways come to mind...

1. Open another visual studio window and open the second solution in it.

2. It would be preferable to add your existing projects to one solution, just right click and add existing project and navigate to the project file(csproj). .... e.g. C:\Users\User\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Projects\MySqlWindowsFormsApplication1\MySql Windows Forms Project1\MySql Windows Forms Project1.csproj ....In this second way you might want to setup multiple start up projects i.e. for people with client-server apps or apps with dependencies. ....To do this Select the solution then GoTo: Project>>Properties>>Startup Project>> Select Multiple Startup projects and set actions to Start. When you debug, the selected as start will run.

3. For interest sake you could open another multiple solution windows to view different projects at the same time. http://www.schwammysays.net/visual-studio-2012-tip-multiple-solution-explorers/

If you have two separate solutions, then you cannot view them simultaneously in the same VS instance. However, you can open multiple instances of VS and tab between them.

An alternative would be to import the projects from one solution into the other, thus putting all of your projects into one solution. You can do this by following these steps:

1. In the Solution Explorer, select the Solution into which you want to import a project. Right-click, and select Add->Existing Project from the context menu.

2. In the file chooser, find the project file that you want to import (it will end in .XXproj where XX is the language you're using).

3. Click Open and voila! Your project is imported.

You can create a new blank solution and add your different projects to it.

There is a way to store multiple solutions in one instance of VS.

Attempt the following steps:

1. File > Open > Project/Solution
2. This will bring up the open project window, notice at the bottom where it says options, select add to solution

3. Then select the file you want to add and click open
4. This will then add the solution to your project. You still won't be able to run the same project in a single instance of VS, but you can have all your code organized in one place.

NOTE: This worked for Visual Studio 2013 Professional

Don't know whether this is useful but if you want to work with multiple projects without navigating through projects tree {like multi window} you can try opening VS in another virtual desktop (at least it's possible for Windows 10) by holding Ctrl+win+D. Then open another VS studio and open your other project there. You can switch between projects by Ctrl+win+arrow key {left/right}.

There's a much easier (but not so obvious) way; right click on the Visual Studio icon in the taskbar, then right click on the application name in the popup menu, then click "Open". Windows will then open another instance where you can open another solution in.

You can have multiple projects in one instance of Visual Studio. The point of a VS solution is to bring together all the projects you want to work with in one place, so you can't have multiple solutions in one instance. You'd have to open each solution separately.

MAC users - this issue was winding me up, as its not possible to open two different Visual Studio instances at the same time. Ive found a solution that works fine, though its a little unorthodox : get the latest beta testing version, which will install alongside your normal VS install in a separate sandbox (it does this automatically). You can then run both versions side by side, which is enough for what I needed - to be able to examine one project for structure, code etc., while doing the actual coding I need to do in the 'current' VS install instance.