Scott Hanselman

There's a great feature in Visual Studio 2015.3 and Visual Studio 2017 that is turned off by default. It does use about ~10 megs of memory but it makes me so happy that I turn it on.

It's under C# | Advanced in Tools Options. Or you can just type "Advanced" in the Quick Launch Bar (via Ctrl+Q if you like) to jump there.

I turn on "Suggest usings for types in NuGet packages" and "Suggest usings for types in reference assemblies."

For example, if I am typing some code and start referencing a Type that isn't in my project but could be...you know how sometimes you just need a using statement to bring in a namespace? In this Web App, I already have Json.NET so it recommends a using statement to bring it into scope.

But in this Console App, I have no packages beyond the defaults. When I start using a type like JObject from a popular NuGet, Visual Studio can offer to install Json.NET for me!

Or another example:

And then I can immediately continue typing with intellisense. If I know what I'm doing, I can bring in something like this without ever using the mouse or leaving the line.

Good stuff! 

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About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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