Displaying Add-Ins on Toolbars and Menus
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.
When you create an add-in by using the Add-In Wizard and then select the option to display it as a command, it is added to the Tools menu by default. If you modify the code, you can also display your add-in on other menus and toolbars (known collectively as CommandBars). Types and members that are related to CommandBars are contained in an assembly named Microsoft.VisualStudio.CommandBars.
Visual Studio offers three kinds of CommandBar objects:
Toolbars — Contain one or more menu bars.
Menu bars — Commands on toolbars, such as File, Edit, and View.
Shortcut menus (also known as context or popup menus.) — Menus that appear on the screen when you right-click a menu or object (such as a file or project). Submenus cascade off menu commands or off shortcut menus. Shortcut menus are similar to other menus in Visual Studio. However, you access them by pointing to an arrow in a menu bar, or by right-clicking an item in the integrated development environment (IDE).
The tasks below demonstrate how to display add-in commands in other locations in Visual Studio.
Task |
Description |
|---|---|
Describes how to alter an existing Visual Basic add-in to display itself on the Tools menu. |
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Describes how to alter an existing Visual C# add-in to display itself on the Tools menu. |
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Describes how to display your add-in as a button on the Visual Studio toolbar. |
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Describes how to change the default smiley-face icon to another standard icon. |
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Outlines how to change the default smiley-face icon to a custom icon of your own design. |
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Describes how to display your add-in on a drop down (shortcut) menu. |
See Also
Tasks
How to: Restore Add-In Commands to the Menu