PhpStorm 2019.1 Help

Opening, Reopening, and Closing Projects

PhpStorm lets you open several projects simultaneously in different windows. By default, each time you open a project while another one is opened, PhpStorm prompts you to choose whether to open the project in the same window or in a new window.

If necessary, choose one of the options in the Project Opening section of the System Settings page to change this behavior:

  • Open project in new window to open a new PhpStorm window each time a new project is opened.

  • Open project in the same window to stay in the same PhpStorm window.

  • Confirm window to open project in to keep the default behavior and display a dialog to choose how to open each new project.

Opening projects

Open a project

  1. Click Open on the Welcome screen or File | Open on the main menu.

  2. In the Select Path dialog, select the directory that contains the project to open.

  3. Specify whether you want to open the project in a new window frame, close the current project and reuse the existing window frame, or open the new project in the same window frame with the current one. Refer to the Opening Multiple Projects section for details.

Open a project from the command line

In the command prompt, type:

<PhpStorm> <path_to_the_project folder>
See Opening Files from Command Line for more information.

Reopening recent projects

PhpStorm keeps the history list of the recent projects, from which you can select the desired one.

When PhpStorm starts, the most recent project reopens by default (unless this option is disabled on the System Settings page of the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S).

Reopen a recent project

  • Click Open Recent on the File menu and select the desired project from the list.

    Specify whether you want to open the project in a new window frame, reuse the current window frame, or attach it to the currently opened project.

  • On the Welcome screen, click the project of interest in the left-hand pane where the list of your recent projects is shown. Start typing in the Welcome screen to filter the list of recent projects.

Remove a project from the list of recent projects

  • Click Open Recent on the File menu, then click Manage Projects at the very bottom of the recent project list.

  • Click the closing icon for the project to remove. The selected project will be removed from the list of the recent project in the Project window and on the Welcome screen.

To remove a project only from the list on the Welcome Screen, right-click the target project and select Remove Selected from Welcome Screen.

Closing projects

When the only open project is closed, the Welcome screen is displayed. In case of multiple projects, each one is closed with its window frame.

To close a project

On the main menu, click Close Project on the File menu.

Last modified: 26 July 2019