Why can't I open my Visual Basic Projects?

Question

I downloaded Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition a few months ago. It worked fine then. But since yesterday, when I opened .sln files that should open both code and designer views, neither shows.

The title changed to the name of my project, the Properties box appeared, and I could run the program if I clicked debug, but I can't automatically edit.

I need to manually find the file for the program's code (Form1.vb), which could be easily done, but if I open the designer file (Form1.Designer.vb), the visual form designer doesn't come up, but only the coding for it (e.g., the properties of the objects like size, position, non-default color etc.).

Before closing the window, I made sure that I clicked "Save all". I have restarted my computer.I have reinstalled the program. Projects still don't show up. What's wrong?

Answer 1

I notice an annoyance in VB2005 where it seems like the project did not open when you click on the list of available projects. It really does open but it doesn't show anything but the start page....

Just display the solution explorer VIEW > SOLUTION EXPLORER (CTRL+R) then click on the form you want to display.

This problem seems to happen when one Of two things happen:
1.) You close all display tabs in your project before you closed VB
2.) You closed the project via the File >Close menu command. Which closes all display tabs in the current project.

VB2005 seems to remember the last display configuration when exiting so if you closed all the tabs Poiror to exiting then it doesn't show the tabs upon your return...

The work around is to save your project then click the X in the upper right while you have some form/code tabs open....

Next time you open your project you should see your last viewed display tabs