Find and Replace, Environment, Options Dialog Box
Note
This article applies to Visual Studio 2015. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here
Use this page of the Options dialog box to control message boxes and other aspects of a find and replace operation. You can access this dialog box from the Tools menu by clicking Options, expanding Environment, and then clicking Find and Replace. If this page does not appear in the list, select Show all setting in the Options dialog box.
Note
The options available in dialog boxes, and the names and locations of menu commands you see, might differ from what is described in Help depending on your active settings or edition. To change your settings, choose Import and Export Settings on the Tools menu. For more information, see Customizing Development Settings in Visual Studio.
UIElement List
Display informational messages Select this option to display all Find and Replace informational messages that have the Always show this message option. For example, if you chose not to display the message "Find reached the starting point of the search.", selecting this option would cause this informational message to appear again when you use Find and Replace.
If you do not want to see any informational messages for Find and Replace, clear this option.
When you have cleared the Always show this message option on some, but not all, Find and Replace informational messages, the Display informational messages check box appears to be filled but not selected. To restore all optional Find and Replace messages, clear this option and then select it again.
Note
This option does not affect any Find and Replace informational messages that do not display the Always show this message option.
Display warning messages Select this option to display all cautionary Find and Replace messages that have the Always show this message option. For example, if you chose not to display the Replace All warning message that appears when you attempt to make replacements in files not currently opened for editing, selecting this option would cause this warning message to appear again when you attempt to Replace All.
If you do not want to see any cautionary messages for Find and Replace, clear this option.
When you have cleared the Always show this message option on some, but not all, Find and Replace warning messages, the Display warning messages check box appears to be filled but not selected. To restore all optional Find and Replace messages, clear this option and then select it again.
Note
This option does not affect any Find and Replace warning messages that do not display the Always show this message option.
Automatically populate Find What with text from the editor Select this option to paste the text on either side of the current editor's insertion point into the Find what field when you select any view of the Find and Replace window from the Edit menu. Clear this option to use the last search pattern from the previous search as the Find what string.