Samples, Support, and Other Resources in the Visual Studio SDK

Article
08/01/2012

Several support options are available for customers who have questions about how to extend the Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE).

Free Support

MSDN Development Center

The Visual Studio Extensibility Developer Center on MSDN contains resources that help answer questions about how to extend Visual Studio. For example, there are several links to VSIP developer blogs.

Microsoft Newsgroups

Members of the Visual Studio development team and other developers who extend Visual Studio often participate in the microsoft.public.vstudio.extensibility newsgroup. This newsgroup is a managed newsgroup. If you are an MSDN Universal Subscriber, make sure that you register a no-spam alias to make it possible for Microsoft to respond.

MSDN Forums

The MSDN Forums provide another way to chat with peers and experts. The graphical user interface (UI) of the forums is designed to make them easier to use than newsgroups. The Visual Studio Extensibility Forum is a good place to start to search for answers to extensibility questions. Always search before you ask a question because someone else may already have asked the same question.

Visual Studio Gallery

The Visual Studio Gallery is the place for extensions and sample code. You can find tools that improve your productivity and user experience with Visual Studio, sample applications that show how to use VSPackages and the Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF), and other kinds of samples.

Codeplex

CodePlex is the Microsoft open source project-hosting Web site. You can use CodePlex to create and share new projects, contribute to existing projects, or use the applications on the site and provide feedback. All PowerToys (and their documentation) that were included with earlier versions of the Visual Studio SDK are now available on CodePlex.

Included Support

Visual Studio Product Support

Some support is included with the purchase of Visual Studio products. For more information, see Visual Studio Support. Microsoft maintains a dedicated support team to answer questions about Visual Studio extensibility.

MSDN Subscription Support

MSDN subscription packages may also include some support. For more information, see MSDN Subscriber Support.

Paid Support

Developer Tools Support

Support can also be purchased. A variety of support offerings are available under the Developer Tools category at Microsoft Help and Support Centers.

Customers who want to use the Visual Studio SDK to develop complex packages can consider purchasing a Premier Support contract with Microsoft. For more information, see Microsoft Premier Support. For small companies, Partner Advantage Support may be an attractive alternative to a traditional Premier Support offering.

Note

Standard support cannot be used for consultation or to obtain advice.

Questions about Premier Support offerings in conjunction with the VSIP program can be sent to vsipsvs@microsoft.com. Questions about the new Partner Advantage program can be sent to advantg@microsoft.com.

Information about individual support requests can be found at Individual Support Requests.

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