Supporting Multiple Versions of Visual Studio

The term side-by-side means that you can install and maintain multiple versions of a product on the same computer. For VSPackages, that means a user can have Visual Studio .NET 2003 and Visual Basic 2008 installed on the same computer. You cannot have side-by-side versions of your VSPackages loaded into a single version of Visual Basic 2008.

Before you make your VSPackage able to be loaded into side-by-side versions of Visual Basic 2008, consider the following:

• You must determine which side-by-side implementation strategy you want to follow.

  For more information, see Choosing Between Shared and Versioned VSPackages.

• Your solution and project file formats must fit your implementation strategy.

  For more information, see How to: Upgrade Project Systems and Registering File Name Extensions for Side-By-Side Deployments.

• Your installer must handle your implementation strategy so that versioned components, and also components shared across all versions, are correctly installed and registered.

  For more information, see Installing VSPackages By Using Windows Installer and also Component Management.

  Note

  Installing a version of Visual Basic 2008 also installs a corresponding version of the .NET Framework. For example, installing Visual Studio .NET 2003 and Visual Basic 2008 on the same computer also installs versions 1.1 and 2.0 of the .NET Framework, respectively.

In This Section

• Choosing Between Shared and Versioned VSPackages
  Explains how to resolve side-by-side issues in your VSPackage.

• Registering File Name Extensions for Side-By-Side Deployments
  Describes how your VSPackage can register file associations in a side-by-side scenario.

Related Sections

• Creating a File Association
  Discusses file name extensions and how to associate them with files.

• Installing VSPackages
  Discusses how to build and install VSPackages and how to support users who are running multiple versions of Visual Basic 2008 at the same time.