How to change the version of Visual Studio when opening on github

Question

I have both VS2015 and VS2017. When I choose "Open in Visual Studio" on GitHub I'd like to change it to use VS2017 instead of VS2015.

How can I do this?

Answer 1

Found the answer by a different question: Workaround for "Visual Studio Web Request handler could not be found" when using github?

The solution is easy: just reassign the default handler for the git-client protocol. To do that, press the Windows-Key, enter "default apps" and select the settings page. Go down, select "Choose default apps by protocol" and look for "git-client". Click and select the Microsoft Visual Studio Web Protocol Handler Selector for VS2017.

Answer 2

In Windows 10 / Windows 11:

1. Click Windows Start Button
2. Start Typing 'Default apps'
3. Choose "Default apps'
4. Select "Choose default apps by protocol"
5. Find the protocol for the GIT_CLIENT, VSTFS and VSWEB protocols, and select the default application.

NOTE: In step #5, if you have both VS2017 and VS2019 installed, then you will see two identical items named "Microsoft Visual Studio Web Protocol Handler Selector". But they are different: the first is for VS2017, the second is for 2019.

Answer 3

1. Click Windows Start Button
2. Start Typing 'Default Programs'
3. Select 'Default Programs'
4. Click 'Set your default programs'
5. Select Visual Studio 2017 from program list
6. Click 'Choose defaults for this program'
7. To load the desired version of Visual Studio, Check the box by Web Protocol Handler
8. Click Save Button

Note: If you are switching over and want all functionality to default to VS2017 (or whatever version) just select the 'Set this program as default' as an alternative for step 6.