Visual Studio Reference Highlighting Won't Disable

Question

I have disabled Reference Highlighting in Visual Studio 2013 for C# code using the instructions here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/zainnab/archive/2013/07/18/visual-studio-2013-reference-highlighting.aspx. Yet, I still see references highlighted.

The font-color combination being used does not match the font-color setting for Highlighted Reference -- the setting is green background with off-white text, and highlighted references appear as white background with off-white text. Also, the reference navigation does not work (as expected) -- pressing CTRL+SHIFT+DOWN/UP does not do anything, indicating the highlighted references feature is turned off.

How can I stop the references from being highlighted?

Salmon

Do you have any other addins that may be doing this (e.g. ReSharper)? – Burglarize

Also check if you have the Puppet plugin. https://mcmap.net/q/1469619/-where-is-the-color-setting-for-the-active-symbol-highlighting-feature-in-visual-studio-2013 – Cognac

Answer 1

It was caused by the Match Margin feature of the Productivity Power Tools extension. I couldn't find a way to change the background color used for highlighting, so I just turned off the feature.

Salmon

Under [Menu]Tools/Options then Environment/Fonts & Colors/Highlighted Reference you can choose a color to match the background. It still draws a box around the reference. – Keon

The "Match color" display item controls the highlights from Power Tools, though it does seem to be overwritten when VS Highlight References is enabled. – Bushel

Answer 2

On the Tools menu, click Options. In the Options dialog box, expand Text Editor, and then complete one of the following tasks: For Visual Basic, expand Basic, click VB Specific, and then select or clear Enable highlighting of references and keywords. For C#, expand C#, click Advanced, and then select or clear Highlight references to symbol under cursor.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee349251(v=vs.100).aspx

Bondswoman