Find (also "find and replace") not working in Visual Studio

Question

_{Wednesday, April 25, 2007 10:16 AM}

Hi,

  I am an senior .net developer. My Visual Studio 2005 was working properly for several months. I started on a new laptop and everything was fine. Suddenly (due to a windows update or something), the find (also the find and replace) is not working. When I do Ctl+F (or Edit-Find) or(Edit menu-find and replace) nothing happens. I see my visual studio going out of focus (similar to what happens if another window takes modal position).

I made sure that service pack 1 is installed. 

I repaired/re-installed and did other things to fix this problem but still no resolution. Any help would be greatly appreciated.  

All replies (17)

_{Thursday, April 26, 2007 9:57 PM ✅Answered}

Hi enggr,<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

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It’s so strange that repair and reinstall Visual Studio also cannot fix the issue. Have you tried to test in Windows safe mode and run Visual Studio with safe mode?<o:p></o:p>

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Restart Windows and in safe mode, run devenv /safemode in Visual Studio 2005 Command Prompt.<o:p></o:p>

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If in safe mode this issue disappeared, the cause should be third-party applications, services or Visual Studio Add-ins.<o:p></o:p>

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Please also try devenv /resetsettings or devenv /setup in Command Prompt. And I would like to know how you reinstall Visual Studio. Have you gone through this link before?<o:p></o:p>

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907965 <o:p></o:p>

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I hope they are helpful.<o:p></o:p>

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_{Friday, April 27, 2007 8:17 AM}

I also have got that problem. But I don't exactly remember what I did for that. But not very special things. Try to restart the application or reset the windows layout. and check open new website and check whether it working properly.

_{Friday, April 27, 2007 2:42 PM}

I had the same problem & it took all my time. It was wierd since the same find/replace keys worked in all applications even in Visual Studio 2003; but not in Visual Studio 2005 alone. I uninstalled the refactoring software I was using and reinstalled Visual Studio 2005 Service pack 1 & still it did'nt work. It worked after running the command**  devenv /resetsettings** suggested by Benson Yu.

Thanks [:)].

Su.

_{Monday, June 9, 2008 6:06 AM}

Hello,

Thaks a lot !!!

It also work for me doing Visual studio 2008 command prompt then devenv /resetsettings

Bye

_{Thursday, August 28, 2008 3:47 PM}

Hey,

Thanks a ton ***

It also work for me doing VS 2005 command Prompt devenv /resetsettings

Cheers

_{Monday, November 17, 2008 3:10 PM}

Hello all,
I am not a lucky one. This problem appeared after I have uninstalled expired trial version of JetBrains Re-sharper 4.1 (it is a cool product but this really upset me so no problem naming it). Just like others' my main VS 2005 + SP1 window goes out of focus but the Find dialog does not appear neither from the hot key nor from the menu.
Tried devenv /resetsettings from safe mode but no change. Could not start /setup from normal Windows mode though, not sure why.
Reinstalling the whole VS would be a last resort nightmare because I have tons of proven add-ins and settings.
Anyone else experienced this with Re-sharper? Or ideally remembers the steps that actually helped ;-)
Thanks!

_{Wednesday, November 26, 2008 3:33 AM}

 I was having the same problem of not showing find dialog in run mode. I tried to reset the settings from command prompt but it didn't solve the problem. I was also able to search assuming some hidden search panel was there. It was performing the search.
I started to change my resolution to get back the dialog as someone was telling for some 3 monitors like situation. And finally with resolution 1280X1024 i got the find dialog and positioned it in middle and went back to 1024X768 resolution which is default for me. Now the find dialog is appearing for me.
 

_{Tuesday, December 9, 2008 9:19 PM}

Finally, got this resolved by running Repair option from VS setup and then using resetsettings command-line parameter to devenv.exe
I thought that the find dialog actually is somewhere (possibly on the second monitor space) but did not spend a whole lot of time playing with resolutions.

_{Friday, December 19, 2008 1:06 AM}

I am using VS 2005. I had the same issue. I tried devenv/resetsettings but that did not work for me. The find and replace window had moved out of my display screen. I changed the resolution and found that the window was stuck to the right most corner of the screen. Just had to drag it to the center.

But It took almost 2 full days before I could figure it out. By that time, I used the Find window in the Standard toolbar, though I did not have the luxuries provided with Find & Replace.

_{Friday, December 26, 2008 2:44 AM}

Hello,

       My Problem was solved.Just go to the Window menu-->Select Reset Window Layout.Thats it.   

Thanks,

Keval Devani

_{Tuesday, August 25, 2009 2:26 AM}

it also worked for me (VS2008 SP1) Thanks..

_{Wednesday, January 27, 2010 11:09 AM}

I solved it by stwitching to the lowest resolution. They started to appear and when I switch back to the normal resolution I use. Problem solved.

_{Thursday, March 11, 2010 10:33 AM}

Also works in VS2008!  

_{Wednesday, April 14, 2010 4:18 PM}

Thanks, devenv /resetsettings worked for me. The quick find is finding the search strings in my solution/project now. 

_{Tuesday, April 20, 2010 5:51 PM}

I had the same issue, but in the Express Edition I use at home.  Express does not provide the visual studio tools, so the command line tricks didn't work for me.

I reinstalled the software, and when I next went to find, I noticed the bare top of the find box down in the lower right corner.  It was hiding :P  It wasn't down there before (I would have noticed, I scoured the screen when this started), so reinstalling it must have forced it back in range.  Possibly if someone's is missing, it's out of sight.

Try Reset Window Layout under the Windows menu; that works on mine.

_{Thursday, November 25, 2010 6:52 AM}

Thanks,It works for me.

_{Tuesday, December 7, 2010 12:30 AM}

Options > import Export Settings then reset 

Window->Reset Window Layout

Doing this both together worked for me to clear the issue.