Controls Toolbox not showing in Visual Studio 2010
Today I faced a strange problem. I am missing controls from my Visual Studio toolbox. I did only one change in Visual Studio today, I installed Microsoft Pex and Moles. And after that when I took Windows Form project, I couldn’t see any common controls in my toolbox. I tried right click and reset toolbox option, but it was also not worked.
Toolbar missing controls.
After few searches I come to know I can fix this issue by deleting toolbar cache files.The cache files is available on C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0.
Toolbar cache location
In this location you can find four hidden files with TBD extension. Delete all the files; make sure you are not running any instance of Visual Studio. Visual Studio will recreate it next time when open the toolbox.
Voila ! I got it back 
Toolbar is restored.
Happy Programming
10 Responses to “Controls Toolbox not showing in Visual Studio 2010”
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Deleting the .tbd file did not work…any other suggestions?
Comment by Jonel — August 23, 2011 @ 10:58 am
No, I worked for me and few of my colleagues.
Comment by Anuraj P — August 24, 2011 @ 12:55 am
Cheers for the tip. Worked perfectly
Comment by Nick — August 27, 2011 @ 2:13 am
How to find the toolbox.tbd in Windows 7?
Comment by Taurino Poncomulyo — December 19, 2011 @ 1:24 am
@ Taurino Poncomulyo: It will be a hidden file in C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0. location.
Comment by Anuraj P — December 25, 2011 @ 6:16 pm
C:\Documents and Settings is not available in windows 7. What about win7 to find out .tbd files?
Thanks
Comment by Shahdat — January 24, 2012 @ 10:41 am
Oh ho!
It was hidden and locked. By unchecked Folder Options->View->Hide protected operation system files… I see but system say in accessible. While I paste full path in windows explorer I have .tbd files at “C:\Documents and Settings\Shahdat\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0″
and
After deleting all the files no luck for me
Thanks
Comment by Shahdat — January 24, 2012 @ 11:17 am
Same with me too. Windows 7. Deleted the .tbd files. But no use
Toolbox is still empty
Comment by Kit — March 29, 2012 @ 10:35 pm
Great. It worked fine for me. Now I can see controls on my toolbox.
In win 7 you can find the tbd files in the following path c:/users/sumathy/appdata/local/microsoft/visualstudio/10.0
Comment by sumathy — April 4, 2012 @ 11:53 pm
Wow Dude its worked…!!!
Thankfull 2 U buddy:)
Comment by Ranjith — May 6, 2012 @ 9:36 am