Visual Studio extensibility is better with IntelliCode

Mads KristensenOctober 8, 2019Oct 8, 201910/8/19

Installing the Visual Studio extension development workload presents you with a choice of optional components. Looking at the list might leave you rather confused, because how are various C++ components and the Class Designer especially relevant to writing extension? And where is IntelliCode?

Watch the latest Visual Studio extensibility videos

Mads KristensenSeptember 26, 2019Sep 26, 201909/26/19

We have been posting several short videos about Visual Studio extensibility to our YouTube channel in the past couple of months. We chose the topics for the first videos, but now it’s time for you to tell us what videos to record next.

Async loaded .NET projects may impact Visual Studio extensions

Mads KristensenAugust 8, 2019Aug 8, 201908/8/19

In Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3, the CSProj project system (C#/VB non-SDK style) introduces a new way of loading called Partial Load Mode (PLM). After the solution loads, the project system is doing design time builds in the background, leaving the UI responsive and interactive. Extensions may need to adjust for this behavior change.

Theming in Visual Studio just got a lot easier

Mads KristensenAugust 1, 2019Aug 1, 201908/1/19

Sometimes the default themes for Visual Studio just aren’t enough. Lucky for us, we’ve just redesigned the process of creating and importing custom themes.

Checklist for writing great Visual Studio extensions

Mads KristensenJuly 11, 2019Jul 11, 201907/11/19

Great Visual Studio extensions share a few key features that sets them apart from the rest. They look and feel well crafted, are performant and reliable, do what they advertise to perfection, and blend in naturally among Visual Studio’s own features.

Visual Studio tips and tricks

Mads KristensenJune 25, 2019Jun 25, 201906/25/19

Whether you are new or have been using Visual Studio for years, there are a bunch of tips and tricks that can make you more productive. We’ve been sharing tips on Twitter using the #vstip hashtag for a while, and this is a collection of the best ones so far.

Create a private gallery for self-hosted Visual Studio extensions

Mads KristensenJune 11, 2019Jun 11, 201906/11/19

Most Visual Studio extension authors publish their extensions to the public Marketplace to allow everyone to install them and benefit from the large and open ecosystem. However, some companies create extensions for internal use only. A private gallery allows them to distribute these extensions with ease.

Visual Studio Extensibility Day 2019 was a hit

Mads KristensenMay 29, 2019May 29, 201905/29/19

On Friday, May 10th we hosted both internal and external Visual Studio extension authors in the Workshop room in building 18 on the Microsoft Campus in Redmond. It was a full day event with keynotes and sessions for 60 attendees – half of which attended //build earlier that same week, and half who came just for the Extensibility Day.

Updates to synchronous autoload of extensions in Visual Studio 2019

Mads KristensenMay 20, 2019May 20, 201905/20/19

Visual Studio 2019 starts blocking synchronously autoloaded extensions in version 16.1. We’ve seen a tremendous effort of both 1st- and 3rd-party extensions to implement async background load. It’s been truly amazing to see the community of extension authors stepping up to the task.