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Visual Studio Open Project/Solutions Path not set

Corey Fleig 450 Reputation points
2026-03-10T23:08:07.1366667+00:00

In VS 2022, I navigated to Tools/Options/Projects and Solutions/Locations, and set the "Project location" to my preferred area. This used to work until 2 months ago.

Now, it doesn't matter if a custom path is set. Every time I want to open a Project/Solution, the default behavior points to my desktop.

Is there some other change I can try?

Developer technologies | Visual Studio | Setup
Answer accepted by question author
  1. Lizzy Dinh (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 425 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-03-11T07:18:24.71+00:00

    Hi @Corey Fleig ,

    Thank you for the clear information. For your concern, I want to clarify that:

    • Visual Studio does not have a fixed global default path for opening projects. "Projects location" setting only affects where new projects are created, not where the Open dialog starts.
    • It is true that settings will preserve the last known path for opening projects. However, in your case, the IDE might "sticks" to Desktop for subsequent dialogs.

    To fix this, you might need to reset Visual Studio Settings. Please note that the best result of this is that settings will preserve the last known path. Resetting settings will clear customizations so don't forget to export it if needed. Then, you can follow the steps below:

    • Go to Tools > Import and Export Settings > Reset all settings and choose to reset to default environment settings.
    • Open Registry Editor and navigate to:

      HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio<version>\OpenFindMRU

    • Don't forget to back it up before making any changes. Delete/edit entries pointing to Desktop.
    • Close Visual Studio and restart it with: 
        devenv /resetsettings

    Beside from that, there is a workaround that you can also try. Instead of using File > Open > Project/Solution, use File > Recent Project and Solutions instead. This will bypass the Desktop default and open directly from your last-used solution path.

    I hope the information I provided above will help! If my answer is helpful, I will appreciate if you can provide me some feedback to let me know. Otherwise, feel free to let me know if you still have any questions or concern related.

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  1. Q&A Assist
    2026-03-10T23:08:19.7766667+00:00
    AI generated content. This question contains an answer created with AI from Q&A Assist. Learn more

    In Visual Studio, the Project location setting under Tools > Options > Projects and Solutions > Locations controls where new projects and solutions are created, not where the Open Project/Solution dialog starts.

    The behavior of the Open dialog defaulting to the desktop is not controlled by that option. Visual Studio remembers the last folder used in the Open dialog per session and uses that as the starting point; changing the Project location does not affect this.

    To ensure new projects go to the desired path:

    1. Go to Tools > Options.
    2. Expand All Settings > Projects and Solutions > Locations.
    3. Set Projects location (and related template locations if needed) to the preferred folder.

    When opening existing projects/solutions, manually navigate once to the desired root folder in the Open Project/Solution dialog and open from there; Visual Studio will then typically reuse that last-used folder for subsequent opens, but it will not use the Projects location setting for this.

    References:

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