Modifying external DebuggerDisplay with autoexp.cs in visual studio 2015 - visual-studio

It's possible to alter the way the VS debugger displays types even for types you don't own by altering autoexp.cs.
However, in my installation this file does not exist in My Documents/Visual Studio 2015/Visualizers/ nor in another folder. It does exist in the 2013 folder: My Documents/Visual Studio 2013/Visualizers/autoexp.cs
Did its location change? Has the functionality been (re)moved?

It is still possible to place visualizer dll's in this folder, the file just isn't there by default anymore.

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Microsoft.Cpp.Win32.user.props file missing

A few days ago, I set up a Windows 10 by clean installation and then installed Visual Studio 2019 Community on it.
Now, I want to customize Microsoft.Cpp.Win32.user.props and Microsoft.Cpp.x64.user.props files to add additional include paths for all my VC++ projects.
But I can't find these files on my brand-new machine.
They should be located at %localappdata%\Microsoft\MSBuild\v4.0, but there is no MSBuild directory.
Does it mean that the installation of Visual Studio failed, or do I need some additional procedures to create default *.user.props files?
I've confirmed that the VC++ can build a simple hello-world project.
Edit: Attached a screenshot of the Property Manager. There is no user property sheet.
According to Microsoft, VS 2019 no longer creates the .props files by default.
From Cannot see Microsoft.Cpp.Win32.user in Property Manager:
The behavior is intended. Visual Studio 2019 will not create .user files anymore. But if .user files already exist, projects will automatically import them.

How to remove duplicate class template in Visual Studio 2015

When I select menu add - new item in my project on solution explorer in Visual Studio 2015 and want select new class template i see duplication this template. How to fix it?
Besha,
I've encountered the same problem, which as I'm sure is caused by Xamarin item templates. These templates use the same definitions as native VS studio templates, e.g.:
Name Package="{FAE04EC1-301F-11d3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}" ID="2245"
Thus, when VS shows you the items it ends up with duplicate names.
To fix the problem I've scanned all the template files (*.vstemplate) containing the mentioned above GUID and replaced the Name element with a text that suites my needs. E.g. for the Xamarin class I've changed it to be:
Xamarin C# class
instead of Package=".....
Note, that VS uses caching of templates and the caching is different for VS native templates and third party templates. In case of Xamarin, there will be ZIP files containing the templates and cached files with templates extracted from the archives. E.g.:
c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Xamarin\Xamarin\3.11.785.0\T\~IC\IT\Code\GeneralClass.zip\
will contain the extracted templates, while the original archive is there:
c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Xamarin\Xamarin\3.11.785.0\T\IT\Code\GeneralClass.zip
Your goal is to find the non-cached templates and change the Name element there.
Once you've found and fixed the name element, close Visual Studio, launch the command prompt as administrator, go to the
c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE folder
and run the following command:
devenv /installvstemplates
It will take a while.
Hopefully, after that you won't see duplicated class items.
Regards.
If you have Xamarin/Xamarin Studio installed (and don't use it), you can also just simply uninstall it, removing the class templates. Unity by default installs Xamarin Studio, and I simply remove it as I develop Unity projects with Visual Studio.

Exporting a Visual Studio Add-in

Anyone had a need ( or more importantly, know how ) to move a Visual Studio Add-in from one machine to another? Of course it would be easy if I had access to the .vsix, but that's in a bit bucket somewhere. I tried poking around the registry and File Explorer, but didn't see anything likely.
Doing a Tools / Import and Export Settings got part of it - there's a placeholder on the toolbar that has the add-in's name, but none of the buttons show, and, unlike the original machine, the new machine's dropdown to Add / Remove buttons shows nothing.
First you need to find an .AddIn file that declares an add-in for Visual Studio. Usually it is located in the "c:\Users[user_name]\Documents\Visual Studio 2013\Addins\" directory, but can be in any Add-in File Paths listed in Options - Environment - Add-in Security.
In the .AddIn file there is an Assembly entry that contains a .dll name that implements the add-in.
You need to copy both files (.AddIn and .dll) to a new machine, plus optional auxiliary add-in files.
(BTW .vsix is not used to deploy add-ins.)
I recommend using the guide - Syncing Visual Studio Extensions and Settings with Dropbox :
http://www.larswilhelmsen.com/2012/01/08/syncing-visual-studio-extensions-and-settings-with-dropbox/
and complete it as you did with the Import and Export Settings (as noted in the guide too).
Other than that, there is not VS2013 extension for exporting VS extension, the only extention which work well is for VS2010 - ExtensionSync.
Source: https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/dbaf0ac9-fb7b-4fb3-b34d-ea2269276d3c

Changing VS2010's default root directory

I'm not entirely sure if this question belongs here; if not, please let me know and I'll move it to the appropriate StackExchange website.
I am trying to figure out a way to make sure Visual Studio 2010 does not create directories in the default location (C:\Users\XXX\Documents\Visual Studio 2010). I have successfully managed to change the settings for the following directories:
Projects
Settings
Templates
But when I launch VS2010, it still creates the following directory:
C:\Users\XXX\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\StartPages\
The directory is completely empty, and I cannot find any settings that'd allow me to tweak the default location for StartPages.
Is there a way to globally change Visual Studio's root directory from C:\Users\XXX\Documents\Visual Studio 2010 to something else?
Try modifying the values under the following registry key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0

Installing Visual Studio Project Templates without deleting the ProjectTemplatesCache

I'm working on an installer that needs to add several files to AVR Studio 5, an IDE developed by Atmel that is based on the Visual Studio Isolated Shell. These files include project templates for the "New Project" dialog.
By experimenting, I found that I can successfully add the project templates and get them to show up in the dialog if I simply copy them into C:\Program Files (x86)\Atmel\AVR Studio 5.0\ProjectTemplates\ and then delete or rename C:\Program Files (x86)\Atmel\AVR Studio 5.0\ProjectTemplateCache\cache.bin. I have not been able to find any good documentation on how the Visual Studio ProjectTemplateCache folder works. It seems to contain the same files as the ProjectTemplates folder, plus the cache.bin file, so I'm not sure why it would be useful. After I rename cache.bin, Visual Studio does not regenerate it, which makes me worried that renaming it might have some permanent consequences. Is renaming cache.bin a bad idea? What problems can it cause?
Is there another, easy way to install new project templates? Ideally I would like something that is easier than creating a Visual Studio Extension (.vsix) file, as recommended in this previous StackOverflow question: Installing a custom project template with Visual Studio Installer project
The installer I am working on uses NSIS, if that matters.
For my isolated shell I copy my template .zip files to 'Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplates' and '\ItemTemplates'. I then run my isolated shell with the command line '/installvstemplates'. This rebuilds the caches and when you next run the isolated shell, they show up properly.
I also had to target the isolated shell in my extension manifest files.
Have you tried any of these?
If per user project templates are fine, you can drop them in <My Documents>\AVRStudio\Templates\ProjectTemplates.

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