Visual Studio Tools for Applications 2.0

Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications 2.0 gives you a way to enable end users to customize your existing applications using Visual Basic and Visual C#. You can incorporate a custom integrated development environment (IDE) that is similar to the Visual Studio IDE into the application. End-user developers can use the IDE to customize the application by creating add-ins that extend the functionality of the application to meet their needs.

For the latest information about Visual Studio Tools for Applications, see the Visual Studio Tools for Applications page on MSDN. This site contains links to technical articles, videos, blogs, and other resources.

In This Section

• Getting Started (Visual Studio Tools for Applications)
  Provides links to information about how to begin integrating Visual Studio Tools for Applications into your host application, and about system requirements.

• Upgrading to Visual Studio Tools for Applications 2.0
  Describes how to update the host application and migrate add-in projects to the latest version of Visual Studio Tools for Applications.

• Creating Proxies
  Explains how to create proxies for managed and unmanaged object models by using the Proxy Generation tool (Proxygen.exe).

• Registering the Host Application
  Explains how to register your host application so you can create custom configurations.

• Creating Project Templates (Visual Studio Tools for Applications)
  Explains how to create project templates by using the Project Template Generation tool (Projectgen.exe).

• Discovering and Loading Add-Ins
  Gives an overview of how to load and unload add-ins by using the .NET Framework.

• Incorporating the Integrated Development Environment
  Provides information about how to configure, start, and stop the IDE.

• Creating In-Process Hosts
  Provides an overview of using in-process hosts to extend the IDE project system, and links to a walkthrough that demonstrates the procedure.

• Dynamically Creating and Modifying Host Items and Host Objects in an Add-in Project
  Provides information about how to dynamically modify the object model of an add-in project that is open in the Visual Studio Tools for Applications IDE.

• Securing and Deploying Add-Ins
  Explains the options for the add-in deployment experience you can implement for your end users.

• Tools (Visual Studio Tools for Applications)
  Provides links to information about the Project Template Generation tool (Projectgen.exe) and the Proxy Generation tool (Proxygen.exe).

• ShapeApp Samples (Visual Studio Tools for Applications)
  Describes the five versions of the ShapeApp sample application that are included with Visual Studio Tools for Applications.

• Resources for Troubleshooting Development Errors
  Provides information about how to troubleshoot errors that you might encounter when running your code. It includes links to knowledge base articles, developer communities, and product support.

• Glossary (Visual Studio Tools for Applications 2.0)
  Contains definitions for technical terms used in the Visual Studio Tools for Applications documentation.

• Reference for Visual Studio Tools for Applications 2.0
  Provides links to detailed information about the Visual Studio Tools for Applications class libraries.

Related Sections

• Visual Studio Software Development Kit (SDK)
  Contains links to topics that help you develop products that integrate with Visual Studio.

• Application Development in Visual Studio
  Contains links to topics that explain how you can use Visual Studio to design, develop, debug, and deploy Web applications, XML Web services, and traditional client applications.

• Help Authoring
  Provides information to help you author and install documentation for your products so that it integrates into the Visual Studio documentation.