Changing Ctrl + Tab behavior for moving between documents in Visual Studio

Is it possible to change how Ctrl + Tab and Shift + Ctrl + Tab work in Visual Studio? I have disabled the popup navigator window, because I only want to switch between items in the tab control. My problem is the inconsistency of what switching to the next and previous document do.

Every other program that uses a tab control for open document I have seen uses Ctrl + Tab to move from left to right and Shift + Ctrl + Tab to go right to left. Visual Studio breaks this with its jump to the last tab selected. You can never know what document you will end up on, and it is never the same way twice.

It is very counterintuitive. Is this a subtle way to encourage everyone to only ever have two document open at once?


Let’s say I have a few files open. I am working in one, and I need to see what is in the next tab to the right. In every other single application on the face of the Earth, Ctrl + Tab will get me there. But in Visual Studio, I have no idea which of the other tabs it will take me to. If I only ever have two documents open, this works great. As soon as you go to three or more, all bets are off as to what tab Visual Studio has decided to send you to.

The problem with this is that I shouldn’t have to think about the tool, it should fade into the background, and I should be thinking about the task. The current tab behavior keeps pulling me out of the task and makes me have to pay attention to the tool.

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