Hello World from ContextKeeper!

I'm happy to announce the ContextKeeper 0.71 version is available in private beta.

From now on you can safely store and switch between different programming contexts in seconds. A snapshot remembers last opened files, pinned tabs, documents positions and state (horizontal/vertical orientation, docked state and order) are preserved in a simple JSON file.

After installing VSIX package you could access your latest Mental Snapshots by navigating to

View -> Other Windows -> Mental Snapshots

How to open Mental Snapshots

By default tool window will open next to Solution Explorer

Tool Window Placement

You could create a new snapshot using Create Snapshot button

and restore them quickly using few commands from right-click context menu

Right-click menu

Full Restore - restores all files including windows state&position, pinned tabs and current line&column for every file,

Append Files - adds all files from a selected snapshot to the current active window,
Restore Files - closes all tabs and restores a snapshot in the same way as Append Files,
Update - update selected snapshot using current visual&logical state

Where the snapshots are stored?

All snapshots are stored in the .contextkeeper folder which is created in the same folder where solution file (.sln) sits. A snapshot is saved using self explanatory JSON format. You could try changing different bits manually and later checking an impact it has during restoring process.

Current limitations

s̶t̶o̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶f̶i̶l̶e̶ ̶p̶a̶t̶h̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶n̶a̶p̶s̶h̶o̶t̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶b̶s̶o̶l̶u̶t̶e̶ (update: relative path support implemented 1st June 2022),
windows positions are tightly coupled to your (multi) monitor setup and switching between them are not supported yet (e. g. switching between workstation and laptop).
Visual Studio 2013/2015/2017 and 2019 are supported. The experimental support for VS 2022 is around the corner. (update: VS 2022 support started from 26th November 2021)

Roadmap

Current roadmap is focused to remove above limits and add support to:

automatic snapshot switching when changing branches (update Nov 11th 2021: already implemented!)
relative paths for all files in snapshots in order to be able to restore a snapshot in different dev environment (e. g. new folder structure or entirely new machine), (update: implemented, 1st June 2022),
multi-monitor setup detection to allow smooth snapshots transition between your workstation or laptop or even sharing it with your teammate.