Visual Studio & ReSharper performance tips

Another post for ASP.NET/C# developers reading this blog. If you think these posts do not belong here, please leave a comment, and I'll consider moving my development articles to a separate blog.

Everyone knows Visual Studio 2010 can be slow. Even on my laptop with 8 gigs of RAM and Intel Core i7 it gets sluggish. Especially when editing Razor MVC views - every keystroke takes 1-3 seconds to register.

Below are a few tips on how to make it a bit faster:

• Temporary disable unused extensions enabling them only when needed. Code highlighters, source control providers you rarely use (AnkhSvn, for instance, can cause slowdowns), script minimisers... All the rarely used stuff should be disabled. It's under "Tools - Extensions".
• Disable "Track changes" in "Tools - Options - Text Editor". This way Visual Studio will not display a colored bar next to the changed lines in your source files.
• Disable "Rich client visual experience" in the "Options - Environment". Here's how that settings page looks:
  
• Disable IntelliTrace (Ultimate edition only) - in the "Tools - Options - IntelliTrace - General"
• Disable "Track Active items" - "Tools - Options - Projects and Solutions - Track Active Item in Solution Explorer". This will turn off cursor-jumping in the solution explorer whenever you select different files in different projects.
• Disable ReSharper IntelliSense in the ReSharper options, keep the default "Visual Studio" IntelliSense mode.
• Disable ReSharper "Analyse errors in whole solution" - a huge performance consumer.
• Disable editing enhancements in ReSharper - in ReSharper options turn off all the boxes under "Options - Environment - Editor"
• Install all the hotfixes for your Visual Studio. You will find the list at http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/Downloads
• Install SP1, and even if you already have it installed - reapplying it can help fixing the lagginess. Visual Studio sometimes "repairs" itself, reviving some old unfixed stuff.