PhpStorm 2020.3 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 select File | Open from 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, close the current project and reuse the existing window, or open the new project in the same window with the current one. Refer to the Opening Multiple Projects section for details.

Open a project from the command line

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

  • Call File | Open Recent from the main menu and select the desired project from the list.

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

  • On the Welcome screen, click Projects n the left-hand pane and then select the project of interest in the right-hand pane where the list of your recent projects is shown. Start typing in the Search projects field 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 you have only one open project and you close it, PhpStorm displays the Welcome screen. In case of multiple projects, each one is closed with its window.

To close a project

  • From the main menu, select File | Close Project.

Last modified: 21 April 2021