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How Do I Change to Visual Studio in Unity?

Published in Unity IDE 2 mins read

Changing Unity's script editor to Visual Studio is straightforward: you need to configure Unity to use Visual Studio as its preferred external script editor.

Here's how:

  1. Open Unity: Launch your Unity project.

  2. Access Preferences: Go to Edit -> Preferences (on Windows) or Unity -> Settings (on macOS).

  3. Navigate to External Tools: In the Preferences window, select the "External Tools" tab.

  4. Choose Visual Studio: Find the "External Script Editor" dropdown menu. Select "Visual Studio" (or the specific version of Visual Studio you have installed). If Visual Studio isn't listed, ensure it's installed correctly and then refresh the dropdown. If you have Visual Studio Code instead, select "Visual Studio Code".

    • Important Note: If using Visual Studio Code, you'll likely also need the C# extension installed within VS Code for full IntelliSense support.

  5. Close Preferences: Close the Preferences window.

  6. Test the Configuration: Double-click any C# script file (e.g., in your "Assets" folder). Visual Studio should now open automatically with the selected script.

If Visual Studio doesn't open, or if you experience issues with IntelliSense (code completion, error highlighting) in Visual Studio:

  • Ensure the Visual Studio Editor package is installed in Unity: Go to Window -> Package Manager. Search for "Visual Studio Editor" and make sure it is installed and up to date. If it isn't installed, install it. If it's outdated, update it.

  • Restart Unity and Visual Studio: Sometimes a simple restart can resolve connectivity issues.

  • Check Visual Studio Installation: Verify that Visual Studio is correctly installed and that the "Game development with Unity" workload was selected during installation. If not, modify your Visual Studio installation to include this workload.

  • Regenerate project files: In Unity, go to Edit -> Preferences -> External Tools and click the "Regenerate project files" button. This ensures that all of your project's C# files are properly included in the Visual Studio project.

By following these steps, you should be able to successfully configure Unity to use Visual Studio as your script editor.

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