Turn off animations

The way menus slide out might look funky... but its got to waste a few cycles. Increase responsiveness by turning off the animations.

• Options
  • Environment
    • General
      • Animate environment tools (Set to OFF)

Make strings stand out

Most typographic errors in the code are caught by the compiler. Embedded strings, unlike code, are not parsed but you can be sure your endusers will notice your typos! Highlighting the strings as shown is guaranteed to help you pick up your mistakes sooner!

• Options
  • Environment
    • Fonts and colours
      • Display items
        • String
          • Foreground: White
          • Background: Purple

Turn on Word Wrap

Some purists might argue against word wrap. But in VB.net if you leave it turned off you're not likely to notice any mistakes relating the 'Handles' keyword.

• Options
  • Text Editor
    • Basic
      • General
        • Word Wrap

Adjust your Tab Sizes

it's important to make your tab sizes Consistent with other people working on the same project as you. Other wise false deltas will be created in VSS change tracking.

• Options
  • Text Editor
    • Basic
      • Tabs
        • Tab size: 2
        • Indent size: 2

Set Tab Order for multiple controls

• Select all the controls you want to set tab order for.
• Select View-> Tab order
• Click on the controls in the order you want their tab order to be set.

Set code to editable while debugging

Although it's not as good as real 'edit and continue' it's still a lot better than the default (don't allow changes while debugging). And yes, it can lead to 'unexpected behaviour' - but i'm sure you understand that your changes won't be picked up until you restart.)

• Options
  • Debugging
    • Edit and Continue
      • Allow me to edit VB files while debugging

Make breakpoint warnings stand out

• Options
  • Environment
    • Fonts and Colours
      • Display Items
        • breakpoint (warning)
          • Fore ground
          • (change to cyan, rather than white.)