Manage a private gallery by using registry settings

If you are an administrator or the developer of a Visual Studio extension, you can control access to the controls, templates, and tools in the Visual Studio Gallery, the Samples Gallery, or private galleries. To make a gallery available or unavailable, create a .pkgdef file that describes the modified registry keys and their values.

Manage private galleries

You can create a .pkgdef file to control access to galleries on multiple computers. This file must have the following format.

[$RootKey$\ExtensionManager\Repositories\{UniqueGUID}]
@={URI}  (REG_SZ)
Disabled=0 | 1 (DWORD)
Priority=0 (highest priority) ... MaxInt (lowest priority) (DWORD) (uint)
Protocol=Atom Feed|Sharepoint (REG_SZ)
DisplayName={DisplayName} (REG_SZ)
DisplayNameResourceID={ID} (REG_SZ)
DisplayNamePackageGuid={GUID} (REG_SZ)

The Repositories key refers to the gallery to be enabled or disabled. The Visual Studio Gallery and the Samples Gallery use the following repository GUIDs:

  • Visual Studio Gallery : 0F45E408-7995-4375-9485-86B8DB553DC9

  • Samples Gallery : AEB9CB40-D8E6-4615-B52C-27E307F8506C

    The Disabled value is optional. By default, a gallery is enabled.

    The Priority value determines the order in which the galleries are listed in the Options dialog box. Visual Studio Gallery has priority 10 and the Samples Gallery has priority 20. Private galleries start at priority 100. If several galleries have the same priority value, the order in which they appear is determined by the values of their localized DisplayName attributes.

    The Protocol value is required for Atom-based or SharePoint-based galleries.

    Either DisplayName, or both DisplayNameResourceID and DisplayNamePackageGuid, must be specified. If all are specified, then the DisplayNameResourceID and DisplayNamePackageGuid pair is used.

You can disable a gallery in a .pkgdef file. The following entry disables the Visual Studio Gallery:

[$RootKey$\ExtensionManager\Repositories\{0F45E408-7995-4375-9485-86B8DB553DC9}]
"Disabled"=dword:00000001

The following entry disables the Samples Gallery:

[$RootKey$\ExtensionManager\Repositories\{AEB9CB40-D8E6-4615-B52C-27E307F8506C}]
"Disabled"=dword:00000001