If I click control-click a hyperlink in the text editor, it opens the URL in a new Visual Studio tab. I would rather the link open outside Visual Studio in my system's default web browser (happens to be Google Chrome). How can I arrange this?
I'm talking about hyperlinks in code comments.
I am using Visual Studio 2012. I found a similar question dated 2009, however the accepted answer (a macro) doesn't work in Visual Studio 2012.
Frustratingly, this isn't possible in Visual Studio 2012 or 2013.
Bug reported to developers at http://visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/121579-visual-studio/suggestions/2723548-open-links-in-an-actual-browser Please add your vote!
There is an extension Open in External Browser. I'm using Visual Studio 2013 Professional. It works for me.
To install:
It seems that it is not possible (except if your default browser is IE, so you would not know the difference).
As Anand wrote above, you could ctrl + right click on the link and then select open link in external window (you cannot do that on the start page, only on an opened webpage) but it still opens the window in IE no matter what your default browser is.
Even if you go to TOOLS --> Options --> Environment --> Web Browser, you will notice that it indicated that IE and the internal VS web browser are siblings.
So just copy the URL from the address bar and paste it to your default browser (it's not too much trouble in my opinion).
In VS 2012 Professional, on the toolbar next to the run debug icon, is the word 'Start' which can be expanded. When expanded you have the option to 'Open with...' and you can select the browser to open the web project up in. It does not run the debugger, it only opens the website in the selected browser. (toolbar > Start (expanded) > Open with...)
You can use the default browser switcher application if you are using Visual Studio 2010 for this kind of situation:
Hope this works best for you
I found a way to change the default browser for all actions in Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web. It's documented here:
By default, Visual Studio uses your default browser to test pages. To use a different browser or Page Inspector, right-click [an .aspx] page in [the] Solution Explorer and then click [...] Browse With [, which] lets you select a browser from a list, add new browsers to the list, or set one as the default browser. (The default browser setting here applies only to the Visual Studio environment and not to Windows.)
This also changes the default browser for F5'ing an MVC project, because I'm used to closing IE to stop debugging. When I let Visual Studio use my system's default browser, I first have to switch back to it from my browser to stop debugging, because closing the browser tab doesn't.
Unfortunately it still doesn't open links in comments in a browser.
Well I found a workaround that is not so clean :P
Now Goto 'File' > 'Browse With...' from the Visual Studio Top Menu.
In the 'Browse With' Window, select the desired browser and click the 'Set as Default' button.
Click the Browse button to set the new default selection.
