Unable to restore Visual Studio 2022 window (IDE itself) after minimizing

Question

I have Visual Studio 2022, newest version 17.1.0 running on Windows 10 Pro (up to date). This just started happening yesterday, so maybe it has something to do with the new update.

I open a solution, everything is fine. If I minimize Visual Studio, I can't get it back.

It's running. I can see the toolbar icon looks like it's supposed to when an app is running and I can see it in Task Manager. But I can't get it back on the screen (I have a single monitor setup). It makes the error sound, and does nothing. I can right-click and open another instance, or I can right-click and select "close window", but I can't interact with the original instance at all. If I try to ALT-TAB to it, I can see it, but then it still just makes an error sound and won't come back up. If I hover over the taskbar button, it will show me the window and I can right-click on that and choose "restore" or "maximize", and that's the only way I can get it back.

It seems to do this for multiple solutions, but it's fairly consistent, once it's minimized I can't get it back without closing and reopening the solution or the right-click thing. Anyone run into something like this?

Answer 1

Have the same problem. Only awkward workaround I found so far was to use Process Explorer from Sysinternals, search for a process named devenv.exe, right click -> Window -> Bring To Front.

Update - easier workaround: Click on the VS icon on the taskbar. Once it is selected, press Windows + Cursor Up.

Answer 2

I do a shift +Right-Click on the icon in the task bar, then select Maximize .

That works for me. [This is still an issue with 17.1.1]

Answer 3

I have the same problem ever since I updated to VS 2022 17.1. It seems we'll have to wait for an update that fixes the problem.

I have a workaround that works well whether you have multiple vs instances opened and stacked in your taskbar or not.

You simply have to right click the instance you want to restore in the taskbar and select the Maximize option

Answer 4

Triple clicking it works for me, but it's still a workaround. (Three times as fast as you can)

Answer 5

I've also found a solution. Just hover your mouse over the icon in the task bar so that the preview is showing, then RightClick -> Restore directly on the preview window rather than needing to launch other tools, task manager etc.

Another solution I've found, is to remove the content of your clipboard. (Start -> Run ... Put some text there copy it). Now you can restore

Answer 6

This was happening to me regularly with VS 2022 17.1.

So I installed Feature update to Windows 10, version 21H2 to see if that helped, and thus far I have not run into the issue.

Answer 7

Like everyone else, I too am having this issue. I can get it to work with a Shift-Right click, and either maximize or restore works to bring the window to the front. Yet as soon as I minimize again, it breaks.

It appears that using the minimize button on the VS window itself is what breaks it. If you use the Windows taskbar, it minimizes and restores as expected.

Answer 8

You can try following these steps:

• left-click one the Taskbar icon
• right-click on the instance
• select Restore or Maximize to get back to the IDE

I had the same issue with Version 17.1.0.