Find in Entire Solution in Visual Studio 2012 gets quite a lot of result from Temp folder

Question

In Visual Studio 2012, I tried to do some search in: Find in Files->Entire Solution, then I get quite a lot results from files in C:\Uses\myusername\AppData\Local\Temp\ . The files take the name like tmpE11.tmp.cs or tmpFBEE.tmp.cpp, the contents are identical to some of the files in my solution.

My guess is that it is caused or auto-generated by some crashes, but why are they reachable by the search? I doubt if I can simply delete them or not.

Donatist

This is so ridiculous, it is still not fixed after 9 years, and feedback-hub mentions are simply closed by Microsoft. I have this behavior in each and every visual studio release ever since! – Snakebite

Still coming back to this problem after another two years. There has been an attempt to report the problem to MS. But because their policy of asking for user feedback and then completely ignoring it, the ticket has been closed because of "missing information" (while they have everything they need to know). Being closed, this problem does not even allow voting for it anymore, what is extremely stupid. developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/… – Snakebite

Answer 1

Maybe this is related to a bug reported, where lots of tmp files created and are then included in the Find Results. If I clear the 'Miscellaneous Files Folder' the search does not include the temporary files.

To display the 'Miscellaneous Files Folder' (see https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/36bhtx7w.aspx):

1. List item
2. On the Tools menu, click Options.
3. In the Options dialog box, expand the Environment node and select Documents.
4. Select Show miscellaneous files in Solution Explorer.
5. Specify the number of documents you want to appear in the folder.

In Visual Studio 2013 you can limit the contents to 0 which effectively prevent inclusion.

Disembody

I have no idea about Visual Studio, but it seem that this isn't an answer to this question, but rather a comment that you're having the same problem. You can add a bounty on this question if you want to give some incentive for it to be solved. – Waiwaif

This is an answer to his question. Do you experience the same problem and have you tried my solution? – Disembody

This worked for Visual Studio 2017 to display the folder in the solution that had all these temp files in it. Then I just selected the temp files in the solution explorer and deleted them. Solved the issue for me of all these temp files (located in appdata/local/temp) showing up in the results of doing a global search of the solution. – Morality

The problem remains after trying what you suggested. This seems to have nothing to do with it. – Snakebite

Answer 2

I am not certain if this is the same issue OP is experiencing, but I had a similar problem where temporary git-related files (like diffs) were showing up in my Find All results. These files are also kept in C:\Uses\[user]\AppData\Local\Temp\.

I found my way here when looking for how to exclude them, and the solution was a lot simpler than expected. In the Find All dialog, uncheck Include miscellaneous files:

Thanks to @gast128's answer for pointing me in the right direction, even though it was in front of my face the entire time. :-)

Entrepreneur

Answer 3

Check if you have a diff window opened. I got the same before closing the diff window.

Tracy