Creating and Controlling Environment Windows

Visual Studio add-ins are deprecated in Visual Studio 2013. You should upgrade your add-ins to VSPackage extensions. For more information about upgrading, see FAQ: Converting Add-ins to VSPackage Extensions.

The Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE) is composed of numerous tool windows. A tool window is a window created by Visual Studio, or one that can be manipulated by Visual Studio automation. The Visual Studio automation model enables you to manipulate its windows and in many cases, their contents. For example, the Toolbox window is represented by the ToolBox object, as well as the ToolBoxTabs and ToolBoxItems collections. You can use its members to add and remove tabs and Toolbox items. You can also create your own tool windows to suit your custom content.

While some tool windows, such as Solution Explorer and the Class View tool window, do not have explicit automation features, you can still manipulate the windows themselves. Solution Explorer is a tool window in the Visual Studio IDE that displays a physical, file-based depiction of your solution and its projects and their project items. Like any other tool window in Visual Studio, you can control its physical parameters, such as size, location, and whether it is docked or free-floating. Class View is a tool window that displays the symbols defined, referenced, or called in the application you are developing. For information, see How to: Change Window Characteristics.

To learn more about	See
Changing the physical characteristics of a tool window, such as its height, width, and so forth.	How to: Change Window Characteristics
Manipulating source code and text in the Code Editor.	How to: Control the Code Editor (Visual Basic)
Automating search and replace operations in the Code Editor.	How to: Automate Text Search and Replace
Manipulating Solution Explorer and its contents.	How to: Control Solution Explorer
Using the Visual Studio Code Model to discover code.	Discovering Code by Using the Code Model (Visual Basic)
Manipulating the Output window and its contents.	How to: Control the Output Window
Changing the settings in the Options dialog box on the Tools menu.	Controlling Options Settings
Manipulating the Toolbox and its contents.	How to: Control the Toolbox
Manipulating the Task List and its contents.	How to: Control the Task List
Manipulating the Command window and its contents.	How to: Control the Command Window
Controlling tree views in tool windows by using the UIHierarchy object.	How to: Manipulate Tree Views by Using UIHierarchy
Creating and manipulating tool windows.	How to: Create and Control Tool Windows

See Also

Tasks

How to: Create an Add-In

Walkthrough: Creating a Wizard

Concepts

Controlling Projects and Solutions

Automation Object Model Chart

Other Resources

Creating Add-ins and Wizards

Automation and Extensibility Reference