Creating a Shell Instance

To create a Visual Studio 2008 Shell instance, you must install Visual Studio 2008 and the Visual Studio 2008 SDK. By using these two products, you can develop and test a Shell instance.

The following table summarizes the purposes of the key software components for developing a Shell instance.

Name	Description
Visual Studio 2008 SDK	The SDK you must have to develop and test package-based extensions of Visual Studio. You can use the SDK to create packages that target Visual Studio, Visual Studio Shell (integrated mode), and Visual Studio Shell (isolated mode). You can also use the SDK to create your own instance of the Visual Studio Shell (isolated mode). Visual Studio 2008 Standard or higher is a prerequisite for the SDK.
Visual Studio 2008 Shell (isolated mode) Redistributable	The redistributable that you include in your Setup program when you build a tools environment on the isolated Shell. The isolated Shell redistributable package is about 130 MB. It includes .NET Framework 3.5 and the components of the Visual Studio Shell. To redistribute your isolated Shell, you must obtain a Shell Load Key (SLK) from Microsoft. An SLK is a unique identifier for your application that helps prevent conflicts with other Visual Studio-based applications.
Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) Redistributable	The redistributable that you include in your Setup program when you build a tools environment on the integrated Shell. The integrated Shell redistributable package is about 180 MB. It includes .NET Framework 3.5 and the components of the Visual Studio Shell.

See Also

Tasks

Walkthrough: A Basic Isolated Shell Application

Concepts

Visual Studio Shell-Based Applications

Deploying a Shell Instance

Change History

Date	History	Reason
July 2008	Updated file sizes for service pack 1.	Content bug fix.