I'm developing an addin for visual studio (2010) and want to debug it. I found about the experimental instance of visual studio from here:
http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/oshryhorn/archive/2011/03/09/experimental-instance-of-vs-2010-safe-and-easy-debugging.aspx
However it doesn't go on to say how to register the addin for the experimental version only. I tried adding a folder key to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0Exp_Config\AutomationOptions\LookInFolders but when starting the experimental instance my new key gets deleted and it never reads the .addin file (which works if i put in the normal place and run the normal instance of VS so that bit is OK)
Try the following
Shut down all instances of Visual Studio
Add your folder to the "VisualStudio\10.0Exp\AutomationOptions\LookInFolders" key (not 10.0Exp_Config).
You will likely need to manually add both "AutomationOptions" and "LookInFolders"
After this new instances of Visual Studio looking at the experimental hive should see your folder.
Alternatively you can just add this through the options menu in the Visual Studio Experimental Instances.
Tools -> Options
Environment
Add-in / Macros Security
Add your folder via the "Add" button
Related
I'm developing a Visual Studio extension for Visual Studio 2017. In my extension, I have a class inheriting DialogPage to allow the user to define parameters.
I want to see exactly what gets serialized when settings are changed.
According to Options and Options Pages article in MSDN the data should be stored in the registry but I couldn't find it.
Where are the settings are stored for Visual Studio options page?
According to following blog, VS2017 support multiple instances of VS install on the same machine. So the settings were moved out of the registry. Each instance also has its own private registry so they can be configured independently.
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/heaths/2016/09/15/changes-to-visual-studio-15-setup/
You could find the private registry for your Visual Studio 2017 from C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\15.0_XXXExp ("XXX "could be any numbers, just find the folder suffix is "Exp").
And you could open this settings file with regedit.exe. Detailed steps, please refer to:
http://www.visualstudioextensibility.com/2016/11/23/some-implications-of-the-new-modular-setup-of-visual-studio-2017-for-vsx-developers/
Im working on a couple of independent Visual Studio extensions in separate solutions. When I open one of them and launch the experimental instance in the debugger, the other extensions from the other solutions (which aren't open) are loaded as well. There must be a way to only launch one extension in the experimental instance at a time (in particular the one you're currently working on), right?
You can actually create as many experimental instances as you like by using different, arbitrary values of the "RootSuffix" parameter (which will create multiple separate base keys in the registry) but I'm not sure how easy it is to configure VSSDK projects (such as VsPackage ones) to publish to a different VS hive. Probably just a property you set inside each project file. Each experimental instance is completely separate.
So you can run "devenv.exe /RootSuffix MyFirstInstance" and "devenv.exe /RootSuffix MySecondInstance" and each will use separate sets of user extensions. This would result in using the registry keys HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0MyFirstInstance_Config and HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0MySecondInstance_Config, respectively.
They seem to have removed a lot of the documentation for this feature since VS2005, but it all still seems to work.
Not really. When you build and run the extension project in VS, it is actually deployed to the experimental instance of VS, but they're not uninstalled when you finish debugging/running.
Your best bet is to use the script to reset the experiment instance that is provided with the VS SDK. Unfortunately you'll have to do this every time you switch between your solutions.
Look in the start menu for:
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 SDK\Tools\Reset the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Experimental instance.lnk
Years ago, using VS2005, I had a setup where I could right-click on the desktop/folder, select New, select Visual Studio 2005 solution and it would create a solution for me right there. I can't remember how I did this.
Does something like this exist for VS2008 or VS2010? It would be really handy.
EDIT: Figured it out based on the links in the answers (and also found an old email to myself).
1. Create a registry file (.reg) with the following content, then execute it:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.sln\ShellNew]
"FileName"="Visual Studio Solution.sln"
2. Create a new file called Visual Studio Solution.sln in C:\Windows\ShellNew folder with the following content:
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 10.00
# Visual Studio 2008
Global
GlobalSection(SolutionProperties) = preSolution
HideSolutionNode = FALSE
EndGlobalSection
EndGlobal
3. Reboot Windows and you'll have yourself a context menu.
I used to use what I think you are looking for. It was done with a little registry update (.reg) file whose contents start like this
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.sln\ShellNew]
"Data"=hex:EF,BB,BF,D,A,4D,
of which this is just a snippet, and it was for an earlier version of VS. But this might be enough to jog your memory, or give you something to google for. See here for more
http://flux88.com/2009/03/right-click-new-visual-studio-solution/
edit..
also see http://visualstudiohacks.com/registry-hacks/create-solutions-without-folders/
I believe the Team Foundation Server edition of Visual Studio does that, either stand alone or with the Team Foundation Server Power Tools, which the Power Tools site says it has Windows Shell Extensions.
Also Codeplex hosts MSBuildShellExtension which is a little off topic for what your looking for, but its nice because it lets you build your project from any directory on your hard drive, without ever having to launch Visual Studio.
1) In Visual Studio 2010, use the "Blank Solution" project to create a solution.
2) Copy that SLN file into "%SystemRoot%\ShellNew".
3) In RegEdit, go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.sln
4) If a key (folder) for "ShellNew" does not yet exist under .sln, create it.
5) Create a string value under ".sln" with a name of "Filename" and the filename of the SLN file for its data.
Done. No restart necessary.
REF: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/140333
I often use command line tools to do source control updates of files and projects that I have loaded into Visual Studio 2010. With previous releases when I did this I could force Visual Studio to notice and load the changes by doing a Save All. This doesn't seem to work in Visual Studio 2010.
I do have 'Detect when a file is changed outside the environment' checked in the Options window, but if I sit and wait it takes minutes or longer for the changes to be noticed.
How can I force 2010 to notice the changes in loaded source files and projects?
You can reforce reloading a project by unloading and loading the project.
Right-click the project and select Unload Project, then, when the project is unloaded right-click again and select Reload Project.
Note that this requires that all modified files in the project either be saved or the changes in the file be discarded.
It sounds like this could be the same problem that I experienced here. VS 2010 doesn't seem to pick up on file changes made outside the IDE (like if you add a file to the file system, and then click refresh in Visual Studio you don't see the new file, I experienced this on C++ projects).
You can refer here for the MS case, they claim they have fixed the problem in "the next VS release", which I assume would mean the first service pack for VS 2010.
Win7 shouldn't be a pre-requisite, though its possible an earlier edition (pre-SP1) of Visual Studio didn't work it. Upgrade always works, for reference the track changes option also needs to be turned on.
I've tried to install this
http://www.thinktecture.com/resourcearchive/tools-and-software/wscf
it seems I have to download the vs2005 version first and then update with a file for vs2008.
But the addin failed to install as for me.
Did someone achieve to do so with VS 2008 ?
You're right. It looks like it is needed to have VS 2K5 before being able to use this add-in.
I guess the setup for VS 2005 tries to add a toolbar or some menu items, so it launches VS 2005, which of course fails if you don't have it.
Instead of preparing a setup program for VS 2008, the author just provides an updated .addin while for it.
Maybe it is enough to extract the files from the .msi (see the back room tech for a link) and then install the .addin file from the zip of the "2008 version".
If you succeed in doing this with the msi, put then this .addin file in a directory where VS 2008 looks for it (see the list in Tools / options / Environment / Addins Macro security).
Inside the .addin, there is the path to the add-in itself, which must be of course adapted.