How to: Find Community Components

Custom code snippets, add-ins, and other components that run in Visual Studio can be created as community components and distributed for use by other developers. For more information, see Community Component Essentials.

You can find community components posted by other developers on the Internet, especially on Codezone Community and MSDN Online sites.

To search for community components from Help

  1. In Visual Studio, on the Help menu, click Search.

    The Search page in Microsoft Document Explorer appears.

  2. In the Search box, enter a word or phrase to search for.

  3. In the Content Type filter, select the component types that you want to find, such as Controls, and clear any types that you do not want.

  4. Click Search.

  5. Review the search results for the Codezone Community and MSDN Online sources.

    To learn more about a search result, click its link. Information about how to download the community component should be included.

    Note

    Community components also might be available from other locations online. Use an Internet search engine to locate them.

Security

It is highly recommended that you download community components from trusted sources only.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Install Community Components

How to: Find New Templates

How to: Search for Code Snippets Online

How to: Package and Install Custom Controls for the Toolbox

Other Resources

Working with Community Components