VS2013: restoring the classic search and pattern search box

Question

They replaced the search box (Ctrl + F) in Visual Studio 2013 compared to Visual Studio 2010. Now it is a minimalistic search bar, for example, a window in the upper right corner of the editor area, and it performs an instant search in the actual file. It drives me crazy. Not to mention the lack of the "wildcard" option and the ambiguous visualization of the switches (very thin border around [Aa], [. *] Etc.). In general, I do not like it.

Unfortunately, "Find in Files" (Ctrl + Shift + F) now also no wildcards. At least he remained inaccurate and large.

• Is there any way to restore a wildcard file?
• Is it possible to press Ctrl + F to raise the window for searching the current file?

Do you know any useful settings or extensions for these purposes?

Answer 1

If I understand your question Visual Studio 2013 Find and Replace Dialog provides the ability for the user to find and replace text in the project using regular expressions or wildcards. I think this is what you are looking for.

• Open the Find and Replace dialog box in Visual Studio.
• In the Find and Replace dialog box, click the + button in front of the Find Options label to expand the options.
• The (a) + button opens the expression creator, which allows you to select a regular expression to search for. This can be a useful feature especially if you do not know the correct expression very well, but want to try out one of the predefined regular expressions.