Not convinced how much value ContextKeeper brings? I've got you covered.

Below, you'll find a table comparing extensions that work with VS 2022. I've included free extensions, with the exception of Task Canvas, which is a paid one. I've invested several hours in testing Favorite Documents, Workspace Manager, and Task Canvas to get a clearer picture of how they all stack up against ContextKeeper.

Features supported	ContextKeeper	Task Canvas	Favorite Documents	Workspace Manager
Automatic session switching when changing Git branches	✅	❌	❌	❌
Restores full Visual Studio's original documents state	✅	❌	❌	❌
Tabs order	✅	❌	❌	unreliable
Tab groups (including horizontal/vertical orientation)	✅	❌	❌	unreliable
Document windows positions & size (including floating windows)	✅	❌	❌	unreliable
Breakpoints	✅	❌	❌	❌
Bookmarks	✅	❌	❌	❌
Last selected tab for every window	✅	❌	❌	unreliable
Last active tab among all opened	✅	❌	❌	unreliable
Visual Studio independent restore engine	✅	partially	❌	❌
Multiple document windows	✅	❌	❌	unreliable
Multiple monitors support	✅	❌	❌	unreliable
Relative path (portable sessions between environments)	✅	limited	limited	❌
Maximized/Normal state for document windows	✅	❌	❌	❌
Source control ready sessions files (diffable JSON format)	✅	❌	❌	❌
Continuous session auto-save for branch snapshots	✅	❌	❌	❌
One-click append files	✅	❌	✅	❌
Pinned files	✅	❌	✅	unreliable
One-click session update	✅	✅	❌(only adding)	unreliable
One-click restore	✅	✅	❌	❌
Shareable session's file between teammates	✅	✅	❌(one file for all sessions)	❌
Last opened files	✅	✅	✅	unreliable
Line & column for every file	✅	✅	✅	unreliable
Non-solution (external) files	✅	✅	✅	❌
Not based on the (broken) IVsUIShellDocumentWindowMgr	✅	✅	✅	❌
Still in an active development (updates in 2024)	✅	❌	❌	❌
Price	$149	$49	Free	Free

Task Canvas

I must say, I'm a bit surprised by how Task Canvas, the only paid competitor, performed in the comparison. It was built with a different workflow in mind, which is why it lacks in certain areas. However, it's still quite powerful and presents an interesting concept with its independent task canvas (separate, physical tab). Kudos to Sergey for trying something different. I'll take a closer look to see if there are any elements from this concept that could add additional value to ContextKeeper. What are your thoughts on this?

Favorite Documents

It appears that the most popular extension is based on the simple VS API - VsShellUtilities.OpenDocument(). Unfortunately, it lacks more sophisticated use cases. Nonetheless, it's still better than relying solely on Visual Studio's default state engine and the inherently flawed .suo file.

Workspace Manager

The spiritual successor to the (broken) approach of Save All the Tabs, utilizing the IVsUIShellDocumentWindowMgr.ReopenDocumentWindows() API. Unfortunately it is nothing more than wrapper for the default Visual Studio state engine, which which has had persistent, unresolved issues for years. It's unreliable, sometimes functioning properly but often failing. My experience with it has been similar to Save All the Tabs, which I tried using with mixed success in the past.

The fail of the Save All the Tabs extension, to deliver a stable and reliable restore mechanism, really push me to work on the a truly independent session restore engine. I distinctly recall my thought process during that time -

If it doesn't work, I'll at least give it a shot and try to build it. There's nothing wrong with failing, but if I succeed, man, one day it'll be a big deal! I will try to make it the state of the art session manager Visual Studio never had, but always deserved.

Later, the engine has become the heart of ContextKeeper. It has taken thousands of hours and years of work to bring it to a state where it is a true pleasure and an enjoyable experience to use, and to have the session manager that Visual Studio has always deserved. 🚀 Cause there ain't room for more than one King 👑 in this town.

What's more this week?

• unique access to the Lifetime license (only the first 5000 licenses), both personal and business(!), including commercial license for using ContextKeeper, forever, including all future version upgrades, including plugin for Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code 🔥 (when available). No subscription fees, unlimited use time and free upgrades,
• lately Visual Studio celebrated 25th Birthday. I’m sure in 2034 it will be still the major player on the IDE market. I have long-term strategy to create successful business, focused on the next-gen tooling for developers and the ContextKeeper is a key element of this strategy. By long term, I mean at least a 10+ year time horizon. Surprisingly, it’s not so long. NCrunch plugin has been on the market for 13 years, and Resharper for more than 15 years. Both are VS plugins. By investing today, you’re making a real, lifetime deal. No bullshit. Let’s compare how much ContextKeeper will cost you over the years for Personal Lifetime license:
  • $349 / 5 years = $70 / year
  • $349 / 10 years = $35 / year
• ContextKeeper was born from my pure passion for optimizing daily dev workflow. When I’ve started my software developer career in 2005, I had always this big dream, to create a product that others will love 💖 and to have the opportunity to work on something that I really care about 💪 - devs tooling, neuroscience and cognitive psychology which are big parts of the overall ContextKeeper vision,
• there is a real value behind the offer which you probably recognizes instantly - in the world of subscriptions, especially for devs, Lifetime license is a unseen gem 💎

How to convince management in a company?

If you’re the only one using ContextKeeper in the company, it is high time ⌚ to introduce it to your colleagues, and ask management to buy business licenses for your team.

I have a great example from our business customer:

One of the first emails:

After your email, I started to reconsider and started talking to the management in the company I am working. Currently, there is the possibility, that the company will get one or multiple licenses.

I checked your list and had a quick look at the alternative extensions myself.

As I said in my earlier email, the automatic Git branch switch is really comfortable, but not exactly mandatory. Apart from that nice feature, for me, the biggest selling point for the ContextKeeper was that it also stores breakpoints and bookmarks and does apparently also store more window / context information (like last selected tab, order, position etc.).

and later:

after showing your extensions to my colleagues, the company I work in just bought multiple lifetime business licenses for me and other interested colleagues.

So if you enjoy 💖 using ContextKeeper, please show it to your colleagues, share with them how much value it delivers, among other wonderful features, and talk to the management about buying business licenses.

Your dev team will forever owe you 🙏 - 💯 guaranteed.

The offer sounds good but can I trust you? Will you deliver all those features?

I’m really glad you asked 👋! At the end of the day everything is about trust. When you spend you hard-earned money, you want to be sure that you will get high quality, polished product, made by people you know. You want to be 💯 sure that all those updates will be delivered and the product development will thrive for years.

There are developers, whose trust I’ve already have managed to gain, and I am eternally grateful to them for that.

Maybe you're thinking, 'This is a random guy from the internet. What's his track record? I want to know him better' I've got you covered; follow me.

Piotr’s Track Record

I have been working as a software developer in the industry since 2005, and now the 19th year has just begun. You might ask, 'Have you gotten bored with coding after so many years?' Not in the slightest. My love for computers and coding began very early. I was 9 years old when I got my first Commodore 64. From then on, I always knew that I would be working with computers when I grew up. I had told this to my parents, but they were skeptical. Here we are, 34 years later, and I'm still fulfilling my childhood dream.

Throughout those years, I have designed and implemented many interesting projects. I value your time, so let's keep it short and sweet.

The CNN MagicWall app

I've designed and implemented vote counting algorithms for the 2016 and 2020 US presidential elections within the MagicWall app (.NET, XAML, WinRT, and later UWP) developed for CNN, which was used during election nights. Additionally, I created the National Map module which John King was interacting on the live broadcast in 2016 and again in 2020. This project was both enjoyable and demanding; the app needed to function flawlessly 24/7, airing continuously during election nights. I was also personally responsible for designing the app's automated stress tests from the ground up. All of this occurred while I was part of the incredible team at InterKnowlogy for a couple of years.

CNN MagicWall and John King

During my work, I've begun to specialize and developed an attitude that can be summarized as follows: 'Throw any technologically demanding problem at me, and I will find a solution, no matter what.' I dig deep until I find the solution.

Those abilities helped me when I started working on the first Proof of Concept, which later became ContextKeeper. In 2015, it had the codename CodeDocker:

ContextKeeper's first commit

I've spent the past 38 months bootstrapping (with no VC funding) and working full-time on ContextKeeper since January 2021. I've carefully planned it since 2015 when it was still my side project. Month by month, I've shared progress on the blog. Finally, when the plugin was released in July 2021, I had included the two most requested features in the first roadmap:

• automatic snapshot switching when changing branches
• relative paths support to be able to restore a snapshot in a different dev environment (e. g. new folders structure or an entirely new machine)

Both features have are already been implemented: Git support when changing branches in November 2021 and support for the relative paths in June 2022.

In 2023, there was a truly pivotal moment when support for breakpoints & bookmarks was released. These were the most requested features so far, alongside automatic snapshot switching when changing git branches.

As you can see, I am an experienced marathon runner, consistently delivering results over the years. In 2024, ContextKeeper will be even more polished, offering more exciting and useful(!) features. Consider it done and I will deliver results💪

The ContextKeeper Promise - 💯 satisfaction or full refund within 90 days

If you’re not satisfied for any reason within 90 days you get a full refund, period, no questions asked. If you’re not amazingly happy, I don’t want your money. Without any asterisks or fine prints. You can give any reason or no reason for the refund: you don’t like something, you need the cash back for something else … You can refund and get your cash back.

Free or discounted licenses for startups, students, open source projects, Microsoft MVPs etc.

If you any of above groups please leave your email here, confirm it in your email client and reply to the first email that comes next providing some additional context.

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🙏 Thanks for your support!

Piotr Karczmarz,

ContextKeeper Founder & CTO