What's the order of editor tab windows in Visual Studio

Question

When multiple tab editor windows are open for different files in Visual Studio, sometimes editor tab window shows, but sometimes it is hiding.

When I was making the change for two files back and forth, after I change one file and want to go back to edit another file, but the editor tab window is hiding automatically. It is quite annoying to find that file again.

What's the order of editor window in Visual Studio to organize opened files?

I want to make it ordered by last edited time, but it seems it does not work like that.

Answer 1

Standard order is that when you open a file it goes to the left. So the most recently opened tab are farther left.

But you can always drag and drop tabs to move them where you want them. E.g. if you work on two of them drag them to far left and next to each other.

You can also pin tabs and then they stay in the far left end even if you open something new.

Yet another option is a new tab group. Very helpful if you move from one tab to other very often. So right click one of your tabs and select "New vertical tab group". This way your two tabs are positioned side by side.

It works also when you want to have the same tab in two panels side by side. First you go to WINDOW -> New Window and then you create a new group using the new window.

Also to easily navigate your tabs you can use a tab list on the far right end of the tab panel. It contains all opened tabs in alphabetical order: