When you first run Visual Studio 2010 (VS2010), it asks you to select a profile (e.g. C#, C++). This determines the Start Page displayed when VS2010 starts. Once you pick this, there appears to be no easy way to change your selection (at least none that I’ve found). To see which start pages are available to you, look in the following directory:
32-bit Windows: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\StartPages\en
64-bit Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\StartPages\en
Note: you may also need to change your language directory from “en” to your local environment.
You will potentially see a number of files named “Links.<Version>.<VS2010-Language>.xml”. The part we’re interested in is the <VS2010-Language>, e.g. CSharp, FSharp, VC.
To determine which page you current use, browse in Regedit.exe or use the following command:
reg query HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\StartPage\Default /v Links
You should see a result similar to the following:
Links   REG_SZ   CSharp
If you wish to change this to a different setting, pick another <VS2010-Language> from the list you saw in your StartPages directory, such as “VC”. You can make this change in Regedit.exe or use the following command:
reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\StartPage\Default /v Links /t REG_SZ /d VC /f
Now restart VS2010 and you will see your new Start Page.
