I’ve dealt with this exact frustration before—VS2017’s default Git history view locks you into the current branch, which is a pain when you want to see commits across all branches without merging first. Here’s the straightforward fix:

• Open Team Explorer and navigate to the Git History tab (you can get here via the "History" icon in the Git toolbar or from the "Branches" section in Team Explorer).
• At the top of the history pane, look for a filter dropdown—by default, it’ll display the name of your active branch (like main or feature/login).
• Click that dropdown and select "All Branches" (sometimes labeled "Include All Branches"). This instantly switches the view to show every commit across all branches in your repository, mirroring the effect of running git log --all in the command line.
• If the filter dropdown isn’t visible immediately, right-click anywhere in the history window and look for an option like "Show All Branches" to adjust the view settings.

Once you’ve made this change, you’ll be able to see commits from unmerged branches, track how branches diverge, and review full repository history without needing to merge branches first.

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者Neil