Pablo Galiano's Blog

***Disclaimer: This information applies to Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 only.***

This post applies to the following Visual Studio 10 Beta 1 extensions:

1. MEF component
2. VSPackage

Visual Studio looks for extensions in the following folders:

• %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Extensions (user extension)
• %VS10_Install_Dir%\Common7\IDE\Extensions  (VS trusted extension)
• %VS10_Install_Dir%\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions (VS trusted extension)

Depending on where we deploy our extension, it will be an user extension or a VS trusted extension.

User extension

• It can be enabled / uninstalled from the extension manager window

• Visual Studio will only load the extension if it is enabled in the extension manager
  • HKCU\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\ExtensionManager\EnabledExtensions

VS trusted extension

• It cannot be enabled / uninstalled from the extension manager window

• Visual Studio will always load it

Pablo