Developers are constantly looking for ways to more efficiently write code. We don't want to toil for three hours to write code when we can spend an hour writing something that will create this code for us. Being able to write code faster is not about moving your fingers faster; rather it is about finding more efficient ways to get the same code.The hacks in this chapter describe a number of different ways to help you more quickly write code and work with Visual Studio. You will learn how to create and run macros that can save you time during the development process. These hacks include macros that will create connection strings, automatically sign assemblies, and update project references. You will also learn how to create and run custom tools that can generate code based on an input file.Learning how to develop applications faster is also about optimizing your tools. You'll learn how to optimize Visual Studio to start up faster as well, how to load files into the current instance of Visual Studio instead of waiting for a new instance to start up, and how to use the command window.