After 11 1/2 years, I have decided that I need to take a little time away from work and will be leaving Microsoft. So on November 9th I will be walking out those Microsoft doors for the last time. You can read more about this on my personal web site...

I have been asked a few times why, when you run our wizard, we generate C++ code and not C# or VB. Some have even tried creating a C# or VB stub exe only to find errors when their program is run. Why does this happen? A file that is put into the GAC...

Since Got Dot Net was closed down, I have not uploaded the power toys to a new location. I have received a few mail messages asking where they can be found so I thought I would try out the new SkyDrive service, and uploaded it there. You can download...

Before getting into how this new Visual Studio Shell Isolated (let’s call it VSSI for short) thing works, I thought I would go into some background of how Visual Studio works, so you can better understand how your program will work. When you click...

I have not been making too many posts here, mostly because I have had my head down working on some new, secret tools for the past few months. Now I can talk about them because today at TechEd we announced what that new tool is, Visual Studio Shell Isolated...

One complaint that we have received about creating Add-ins is about the .addin file. Specifically, why are there two of them? If you move the project file, check into source code control, etc. then the file no longer works or disappears. To make this...

For the past few years, Carlos Quintero has been the MVP working with the automation model. Last night we finally got to meet over dinner for the first time during the Microsoft MVP Summit. I would like to take this time to thank Carlos for all his hard...

Samples and tools are a big part of the VS SDK, but what we decide are good samples and tools are not always what you need. So here is your chance to let us know what you would like to see. Always feel free to send us mail directly if you do have a suggestion...

If you have not noticed I have not posted to this blog in a while. There are many reasons for this, a few of which led me to decide to leave my current position in Visual Studio. For the past year I have not done much with extensibility and instead have...

I know it has been a while, but I just wanted to drop a note that our latest book, Working With Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 , is now available in paperback. If you need a copy, you can pick one up from places such as Buy.com , Amazon , etc.

The Seattle Seahawks are in the super bowl, I am happy that they are going. But there is one small problem – I am a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. I moved to Seattle almost 10 years ago, and before my move I was born and lived about 60 miles north of Pittsburgh...

It has been confirmed by a few MSDN subscribers that you can download our book, Working With Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. I have not tried it myself, but it is supposed to be in PDF format. Just click on the Help | Register Product menu item to begin...

You can now download the automation samples for Visual Studio 2005 at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/downloads/code/automation/default.aspx . This package includes samples updated to use the new VS 2005 .addin mechanism, new samples for 2005, and many...

I have upload the source code for the Visual IL language service and project to http://workspaces.gotdotnet.com/visualil . There are a few restrictions that I put on downloading the source code, mostly because I am planning on writing a new book on the...

For a while now, people have been asking me how to create Satellite DLLs for their Add-ins. My response was always to create your .resx file for each culture, run resgen from a command prompt to create the .resources file, then run al to create the DLL...

You may have heard that we have a new book out for Visual Studio 2005. The unfortunate bit of news is that it is only available if you buy the boxed version of Visual Studio, meaning that if you subscribe to MSDN, there will be no way for you to get a...

I have posted an MSI that will install XML files that will help you when programming Extensibility features. When installed, you will get more information in the tool tips when programming extensibility types. If you program against any of these Assemblies...

Recently I uploaded new builds of the Content Installer Power Toys. This upload fixes a few small bugs, including one bug with the shipping version of Visual Studio. To sign a file with Authenticode, the file being signed needs to be a PE file (such as...

As you may know, some extensibility (both Add-in and VSIP Packages) features now support storing resources in managed Satellite DLLs. But we have had a few comments that people have not been able to get this to work. In all cases it turned out that the...

A few weeks back, I had a posting about how to use the new MRU button list command type when calling AddNamedCommand2. This time, let’s discuss the drop down combo type of command. VS has a drop-down on one of the command bars that allows you to select...

One thing that I forgot to mention is that the newly updated Content Host web site template now has code that will enable you to search the hosting web site from within the MSDN help browser. If you would like to see how this is done, the template contains...

I have uploaded new builds of the content installer power toys to the Got Dot NET workspace at http://workspaces.gotdotnet.com/CCIPowerToys . This package was built with a RC build of VS, so you may need a newer version to use it. This version has...

Next week starts the PDC, and I will be there. So if you know who I am stop by and say hello, and if you have any questions about VS Extensibility, Content Installer, VSTemplates, VS in general, or anything else, don’t hesitate to ask. I will be at Ask...

I have had a few questions about how to use the new command bar types available to Add-ins. These new types include the MRU button, and two different styles of combo boxes. I will discuss the MRU button here, and I will discuss how to use combo boxes...

I have uploaded a new tool to the Content Installer Power Toys web site – the Community Content Web starter kit. This starter kit will quickly create a web site designed to host VSI files. It has features for adding ratings and comments to a file, allows...