Creating Visual Studio add-ins and extensions

When Microsoft released Visual Studio 2010, they changed the approach to extensibility by introducing the VSIX format. The number of extensions in the Visual Studio gallery is a testament to how successful this change has been.

So, what do you do if you want to make your own add-ins and extensions in Visual Studio? This recipe will walk you through that process, though the magic that happens inside the add-in or extension is up to you.

Getting ready

To create extensions, you will need the Visual Studio 2013 SDK (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40758) and the Professional or higher version of Visual Studio, which you can download from Microsoft.

Once the SDK is installed, start Visual ...

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