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I've accidentally changed the text cursor/caret in Visual Studio 2010 from the line to the one with the box that highlights the entire character and cannot find out how to change it back. Can anyone tell me how? Thanks!

sebf
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5 Answers5

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Press the Insert Key

Shyju
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    Get a cat, see what happens next. – Hans Passant Oct 08 '10 at 21:51
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    What.. ? I dont understand Hans – Shyju Oct 08 '10 at 21:56
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    I can only guess that a cat would accidentally (purposely?) press keys on the keyboard while it's hanging around you. I have the same problem with my 3 year old son. – Jeff Ogata Oct 08 '10 at 21:58
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    Whoops. Embarassed now. Thank you Shyju! (also RE: Cat, I did acctually try pressing every key while holding down CTRL for a short while but this started doing all sorts of strange things so I gave up on that fairly quick!) – sebf Oct 08 '10 at 22:03
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    For those on a Mac (running Windows+Visual Studio with either VMWare Fusion or Parallels, for example), press the 0 (zero) key in the Mac keyboard number pad. For me, this translates to the Insert key which changed the fat (overwrite) cursor back to the normal (insert) cursor. – SuttonY Jan 24 '18 at 17:34
  • Simple, fast solution, thank you! – Nick Jul 09 '23 at 23:57
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To clarify there are two modes when using the editor: Insert and Overwrite.

Insert -- the "normal" thin caret that inserts characters as you type.

Overwrite -- the "fat" caret that will overwrite any previous characters as you type.

These two act the same when at the end of your document and you are just typing but go in the middle of some text and use them then you will see the difference.

zainnab
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If you are using a laptop keyboard also Shift+0 will solve your problem.

Shervin Ivari
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I stuggled finding the insert key on my Mac book air because i'm running visual studio under bootcamp however i got it right by pressing fn + enter which i understand is equivalent to insert key on mac.

Mathunya
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  • As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please [edit] to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community Feb 07 '22 at 23:28
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I posted a functional valid answer for Visual Studio 2019, that is applicable to VS2010 as well, to your question in the fallowing stackoverflow post LINK There is a windows 10 level solution and Visual Studio level solution, enjoy. :)

Vasil
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