Choose Toolbox Items Dialog Box (Visual Studio)

The Choose Toolbox Items dialog box displays tabbed panes listing components that are recognized on your local computer. You can use the Choose Toolbox Items dialog box to select or remove components, and to add items to the Toolbox or remove items from it. To open this dialog box, select Choose Toolbox Items from the Tools menu, or right-click on the Toolbox and select Choose Items from its shortcut menu.

Note

The Choose Toolbox Items dialog box, named Customize Toolbox in previous versions of Visual Studio, replaces the former Components dialog box in Visual Basic. In other applications, the Choose Items command to access this dialog box might be located elsewhere, for example, on the shortcut menu of the document being edited.

To sort the items displayed on a tab of the Choose Toolbox Items dialog box, click any column header. To add an item to the active Toolbox tab, select the check box next to it. To remove an item from the Toolbox, clear its check box. When you choose OK, any items checked that are not already in the Toolbox will be added, and any items whose check boxes have been cleared will be removed from the Toolbox.

Note

The component files on your computer are not affected when Toolbox icons for them are added or removed.

By default, the integrated development environment (IDE) adds the following tabbed panes of components to the Choose Toolbox Items dialog box:

Because the Choose Toolbox Items dialog box is extensible, you might also see other tabbed panes of components added by Visual Studio Add-in projects or by external applications and packages.

Security noteSecurity Note

Before you add a custom control to the Toolbox, always verify the trustworthiness of the control by reviewing the publisher information or digital signature for the control.

UE Element List

The following controls are available at the bottom of each tab:

  • <controlname> pane
    Displays an item's development language and version, and its Toolbox icon.

  • Browse button
    Displays the Browse dialog box, so that you can select items available on your machine or network that are not yet recognized on your machine. When you select an item, it becomes available for use, and its check box is selected on the active tab of Choose Toolbox Items.

  • OK button
    Adds those items that you have checked to the active tab of the Toolbox, and removes those items whose check boxes you have cleared.

  • Reset button
    Restores the Toolbox to the state it was in when Visual Studio was first launched. Removes any added Toolbox tabs or items, and restores all default tabs and items to their original positions. All additions, deletions, renaming, or reordering of tabs or items on tabs are undone.

    Warning

    Move any icons you want to preserve to one of the default Toolbox tabs, for example to the General tab, before clicking Reset.

    In the Choose Toolbox Items dialog box, the check boxes for the default COM Components and .NET Framework Components tabs are reselected, and those for all other controls are cleared.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Manage the Toolbox Window

How to: Manipulate Toolbox Tabs

Reference

Toolbox