Visual-studio – How to tell if .NET code is being run by Visual Studio designer

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I am getting some errors thrown in my code when I open a Windows Forms form in Visual Studio's designer. I would like to branch in my code and perform a different initialization if the form is being opened by designer than if it is being run for real.

How can I determine at run-time if the code is being executed as part of designer opening the form?

Best Answer

To find out if you're in "design mode":

Windows Forms components (and controls) have a DesignMode property.
Windows Presentation Foundation controls should use the IsInDesignMode attached property.

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Visual-studio – Should I add the Visual Studio .suo and .user files to source control

These files contain user preference configurations that are in general specific to your machine, so it's better not to put it in SCM. Also, VS will change it almost every time you execute it, so it will always be marked by the SCM as 'changed'. I don't include either, I'm in a project using VS for 2 years and had no problems doing that. The only minor annoyance is that the debug parameters (execution path, deployment target, etc.) are stored in one of those files (don't know which), so if you have a standard for them you won't be able to 'publish' it via SCM for other developers to have the entire development environment 'ready to use'.

Visual-studio – How to run Visual Studio post-build events for debug build only

Pre- and Post-Build Events run as a batch script. You can do a conditional statement on $(ConfigurationName).

For instance

if $(ConfigurationName) == Debug xcopy something somewhere

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Visual-studio – Should I add the Visual Studio .suo and .user files to source control

Visual-studio – How to run Visual Studio post-build events for debug build only

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