Customizing Tab size in Visual Studio 2010

Question

I'm looking to be able to set the minimum tab size to something lower than the default 20 width, since I'm editing more than 5 files at the same time. I'm using the Productivity Power Tools extension as well.

You can right click on the space beside the tabs, click Customize...

and then Advanced Options then edit the value from there, but it doesn't allow you to go below the inital size of 20.

Is there a configuration file somewhere I can edit to solve this, or is there an obvious solution that I'm missing?

Answer 1

The solution actually was the maximum size rather than the minimum size. So just tweaking the maximum size value was what I wanted. Not ideal, but still, the answer.

Answer 2

It's worth noting that the screenshot you've posted shows non-standard VS settings - that's the Productivity Power Tools extension that you have installed. You might find they hide their setting file separately to the standard VS one.

One alternative solution is provided by that extension: it'll allow you to have a vertical row of tabs, down the side of your screen. That eats more screen space but fits a lot more tabs!

Answer 3

As per MSDN:-

Your active settings consist of two parts: predefined customizations from the installed .vssettings file you selected the first time you started Visual Studio and any subsequent IDE customizations you have made. Active settings are saved by default in the file currentsettings.vssettings.

So its better editing the values at
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Settings\CurrentSettings.vssettings (This is mine,you need to set it as per your choice.)

However there is one more file, you can edit i.e. C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\Profiles\General.vssettings but keep in mind that editing this one can be quite destructive and its better make a backup copy of it. Also for more information you can ask this at social.msdn.com.