Déjà View
Stop losing your place. Déjà View lets you save your open documents as named worksets and restore them instantly — so you can switch contexts without the friction of remembering what you had open.
The problem
You're deep in an auth refactor — six files open, flow state achieved. A bug comes in and you context-switch. Twenty minutes later you're back, staring at a blank editor trying to remember what you had open.
Déjà View solves this.
How it works
Save your current open documents as a named workset with one click.
Switch to another task. Open whatever you need.
Restore your original workset when you're ready to return.
Features
- Named worksets — save any set of open documents under a meaningful name
- One-click restore — reopen all workset files instantly from the toolbar dropdown
- Auto-open — designate a workset to restore automatically when the solution loads
- Close unrelated — optionally close documents not in the workset for a clean slate
- Missing file handling — auto-remove files that no longer exist, or be prompted
- Solution-scoped — worksets are stored per solution in the
.suo file, invisible to source control
- Portable paths — files stored as solution-relative paths, works across machines and clones
- VS themed — respects your Visual Studio color theme (Light, Dark, Blue, High Contrast)
Usage
The Déjà View toolbar appears under View → Toolbars → Déjà View.
| Control |
Action |
| Dropdown |
Select a saved workset |
| Open |
Restore the selected workset |
| New |
Save current open documents as a new workset |
| Save |
Overwrite the selected workset with current open documents |
| Settings |
Manage worksets and configure options |
The extension is also accessible via Tools → Déjà View which toggles the toolbar.
Settings
Open the Settings dialog via the gear icon on the toolbar to:
- Rename a workset
- Remove a workset
- Auto-Open — check to restore a workset automatically when the solution loads (one per solution)
- Close Unrelated — check to close unrelated documents when restoring (per workset)
- Auto-remove missing files — silently remove files that no longer exist on disk
Data storage
Worksets are stored in the solution's .suo file — the same place Visual Studio stores your breakpoints and window layout. This means:
- Worksets are per-developer — each team member has their own sets
- Worksets are automatically excluded from source control —
.suo is gitignored by default
- Worksets are per-solution — switching solutions switches workset lists
Requirements
- Visual Studio 2022 or later
- .NET Framework 4.7.2
Source & feedback
Source code and issue tracker: github.com/MaroisConsulting/DejaView
Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue on GitHub.
