How can I continuously run unit tests in Visual Studio 2012 Professional?

Brant Bobby picture Brant Bobby · Nov 21, 2012 · Viewed 9k times · Source

Visual Studio 2012 added a "Run tests after build" button in the Unit Test Explorer, but it seems that option is not available in the Professional edition. In fact, my "Unit Test Explorer" is just called "Test Explorer", and doesn't have that button at all:

Screenshot of Test Explorer window

Are there any extensions which can replace this missing feature? Something that integrates with the existing test explorer UI would be ideal. (Free options are also preferred, since if I could convince my corporate overlords to shell out for VS Ultimate/Premium, this wouldn't be an issue anyway)

Answer

Jason Learmouth picture Jason Learmouth · Jul 15, 2013

I remapped my F6 key to TestExplorer.RunAllTests instead of the default of Build.BuildSolution

Build.BuildSolution gets remapped to Ctrl-Shift-B when you do that.

It works well because now my F6 reflex RunAllTests saves any modified files, builds my solution and runs my unit tests.

The only thing I had to change is my window layout so that I can see the Test Explorer Window, that way I know if any tests failed.

Updating the answer with a link to a blog I wrote about this