One thing that seems to be a bit hidden to most developers is that opening files within Visual Studio works the same as opening them within a standard file explorer window in that you can specify the default way of opening a file.

This is particularly useful for forms/user controls in that 90% of the time you'll want to dive straight into the code, not go into the form designer even though Visual Studio defaults to opening the form designer which takes an age if you have lots of controls on your form.

To change the default is easy, this example will illustrate changing a VB form from the designer to the code editor.

• Right click on a form within the Solution Explorer window and select Open With...
• A dialog appears listing applicable editors within Visual Studio you can use.
• Select Microsoft Visual Basic Editor
• Click the Set As Default button.

And that's it, from now on every time you double click on a VB form you'll bring up the code window rather than the designer.

The association is for the whole of Visual Studio, regardless of solution/project loaded.