Visual Studio Tip: Cleaning Up the Template Lists
Do you get tired of scrolling through the New Project Item lists to get to the item templates that you need, while skipping the ones that you'll never use? The same is probably true, though to a lesser extent, with the New Project dialog.
Why not slim those lists down to the half-dozen items you actually use that will, as a result, be right there when you need them? This probably goes against the grain of most developers' attitude towards new technology, but let's face it: you (and your organization) have probably figured out which templates you are and aren't going to use in Visual Studio.
The templates in the New Project and New Item dialogs are zip files kept in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio versionNumber\Common7\IDE\ItemOrProjectTemplates\language folder (this does vary from one installation to another. Just keep looking -- they're in there somewhere). Before you delete the templates you don't want, copy the folder to someplace safe so that you can get back the templates you've deleted if you ever need them (and drop a text file in the folder to remind yourself where you put the original templates). Then clean house.
When you're done, make sure Visual Studio isn't running and, from the Visual Studio Command prompt, have Visual Studio rebuild its lists with this command:
devnv.com /installvstemplates
NEVER INTERRUPT THIS COMMMAND. Wait patiently for it to finish. When you start Visual Studio next you'll have all (and only) the templates you use.
Posted by Peter Vogel on 08/23/2012