XAML Designer not showing up

Question

In MS Visual Studio Express 2013 for Windows Desktop:

I\'m learning C# and following an example that shows how to create a user interface in a .xaml file. https://ms

Answer 1

Problem: XAML UI Designer not showing

Solutions: (different from and much more elegant than my earlier solution)

1. Click on the Solution file (.sln) in the Solution Explorer, if the .sln file is listed in the Solution Explorer
2. Click on the Expand Pane icon to display the Design pane, if it's shown

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Solution 1: Open the .sln file:

My project is cloned from a git repository. When I open it from the Start Page it opens up with a whole list of files in the Solution Explorer. If I open any of the .xaml files from that Solution Explorer they open with a XML editor which doesn't show the graphical XAML view.

At the very bottom of the Solution Explorer is a .sln (solution) file. Opening that file then loads the file list I'm used to. If any .xaml files are open they will not have access to the Design view. Opening them and closing them at this point will load the Design view. If the Design view still doesn't appear see Solution 2 immediately below.

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Solution 2: Click on Expand Pane:

At the bottom of the XAML editor window you may see a small icon with a double arrow (Expand Pane). If you do, it means that you've hidden the Design Pane. Click it and you should get the Design Pane back.

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Version: Visual Studio 2017

Type of project: C# and WPF targetting .Net 4.5.2 with Console Application as the Output Type (for trouble-shooting purposes I've got it both as a WPF and a Console Application).

Problem Details:

I pulled a project I was working on from a git repository onto the problem computer (using all of Microsoft's in-built software and accounts). It was cloned successfully onto the problem computer and Visual Studio worked. After a pull from the repo the XAML UI Designer (Blend?) disappeared leaving me with only the XAML source.

An earlier solution I came across was to delete the source directory from my local computer and pull a fresh clone of the project. That fixed my problem, however, now I've played with it and found two other reasons my XAML Design View was missing. I imagine that I didn't need to delete the folder and that these two solutions would've been sufficient.