How to turn off .BAK file creation in Visual Studio 2017?

user_5885375 0
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I updated to Visual Studio 2017, and now my project directories are being cluttered with .bak files corresponding to files I modify. For example, if I edit a file named LintLicker.cs, the next day when I load my project, I'll notice LintLicker.cs.bak.

I can't find an option setting that controls whether or where .bak files get created. How can I stop this clutter--preferably by changing the location where backup files get created, but if necessary just preventing VS from creating them?

visual-studio-2017 visual-studio
3 Answers

This clutter was not caused by Visual Studio. I discovered the culprit was another program on my system.

user_58853750 
FileName.txt
FileName.txt.bak

For me, the .bak file was getting generated by Notepad++.

It seems that in Notepad++ version 8.3, the default setting is to create this backup file. (I'm not sure what other versions have this as the default.)

To turn it off, use the menu bar:

  1. Settings->Preferences
  2. Backup
  3. Backup on save
  4. [set to] None

Notepad++ Menu Bar

Notepad++ Backup on save

user_2873110

For me it helped to uncheck the checkbox in VS 2017:

Extras->Options->Environment->AutoRecover
user_75928580
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