Visual studio keeps creating a setting folder in my Documents folder

Question

_{Sunday, May 8, 2016 8:42 PM}

Can some tell me why visual studio keeps out putting a settings\startpages folder in my documents folder?

I even when to regedit and edited all the directorys in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0

but every time I relaunch visual studio it changes 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\VisualStudioLocation.regestry

to 

%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Visual Studio 2015

is there a way to stop it from doing this and use the folder I want?

All replies (11)

_{Monday, May 9, 2016 6:35 AM}

Hi Shadowblitz16,

According to your description, I change the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\VisualStudioLocation value to "D:\. After I reopen Visual Studio 2015, it create a settings folder and startpages folder in my D: driver.

And the value for VisualStudioLocation is not be changed to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Visual Studio 2015.

Please check whether do you execute all operations as administrator. And please check whether do you have installed any third part extensions/packages for Visual Studio, which may effect the Visual Studio operations. You can run your Visual Studio in safe mode to verify whether it is caused by third part extensions.

Best Regards,
Weiwei

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_{Tuesday, May 10, 2016 8:41 PM}

no it creates the startpages folder in C:\Users\Username\Documents\Visual Studio 2015

since then it also made a ArchitectureExplorer Folder in the C:\Users\Username\Documents\Visual Studio 2015

I basically want to just relocate all my visual studio writing and reading locations to C:\Users\Username\Documents\My Applications\Visual Studio 2015. except for where it is installed in C:\Program Files (x86).

I know its not the best place for it, but my D drive is currently in use

_{Wednesday, May 11, 2016 1:52 AM}

Hi Shadowblitz16,

After I change the value of HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\VisualStudioLocation registry, the startpages/ArchitectureExplorer/settings are all create in the path that I set.

In my previous test, I change the path to D driver. And if your D driver is in use, please change the path to another drive that you are not using. For example, I change the VisualStudioLocation registry from "%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Visual Studio 2015" to "C:\Users\Username\Documents\My Applications\Visual Studio 2015", the created folder will be stored in the path of My Applications\Visual Studio 2015.

So if you don't want the folders created in Documents folder, please change the value of  VisualStudioLocation registry as the path that you want.

Best Regards,
Weiwei

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_{Wednesday, May 11, 2016 9:20 PM}

I have changed the directory, but like I said it gets reset to the default directory when I launch visual studio.

_{Thursday, May 12, 2016 2:48 AM}

Hi Shadowblitz16,

I have tried your settings in my side and it is not reset to the default directory.

Please check the permissions for your current user to confirm whether it has administrator permission to do the operation of change registry. You also can add a new user for your Windows, which has administrator permission and then do the same operations to check whether it also will be reset or not.

Best Regards,
Weiwei

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_{Thursday, May 12, 2016 6:58 PM}

Nope I ran both regedit and visual studio 2015 in admin mode and it still resets the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\VisualStudioLocation.regestry to the default directory

I even reinstalled VS 2015

edit: also the folder has every permission except special in all users

_{Friday, May 13, 2016 1:32 AM}

Hi Shadowblitz16,

I'm using Windows 10 Enterprise version 1511.

Please tell us which version of your Windows. I will build a VM  to check whether this problem related to Windows environment. If possible, please change another machine to confirm whether it is related to your computer environment.

Best Regards,
Weiwei

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_{Friday, May 13, 2016 7:22 PM}

windows 7 ultimate 64 bit

also I don't have another computer that can run VS 2015

is there a log.txt I can paste here? If so where do I look for it?

_{Monday, May 16, 2016 1:36 AM}

Hi Shadowblitz16,

For Visual Studio log, please check the ActiveLog.xml under the path of %AppData%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0. This file will log all operations when you operate Visual Studio. If you don't find this log file under that path, please turn on the /Log switch and then re-operate again to generate the log information for Visual Studio.

Since your problem related to change registry key, I suggest you also check the Event Viewer to check whether there has any information about change registry key.

When you check the log file, I will build a VM which is the same with your machine environment to check whether it is related to the Windows environment. After testing, I will post the result here as soon as possible.

Best Regards,
Weiwei

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_{Wednesday, May 18, 2016 8:09 PM}

I don't have that file in that directory

_{Thursday, May 19, 2016 4:16 AM}

Hi Shadowblitz16,

If you don't have this file in that path, please turn on the  /Log switch and then re-operate again to generate the log information for Visual Studio.

And I have created a Windows 7 machine to check this issue, I still can't reproduce your problem on Windows 7 machine. So I'm afraid that the problem is in your machine environment. Please confirm there doesn't have any other programs running when you do above operations, which can help us check this issue is not related to other programs.

Best Regards,
Weiwei

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