If you create software development tools, you’ll want to consider building on the Visual Studio 2008 Shell. A streamlined Visual Studio development environment, the Visual Studio Shell provides the core foundation so you can focus on building your application’s unique features. Flexible customization options help you deliver optimized experiences for specific markets.

Key Benefits

• Faster Development. The Visual Studio Shell accelerates development by providing a base integrated development environment that can host custom tools and programming languages.
• A Familiar Environment. Developers can build on the Visual Studio platform and provide end users a familiar user interface, speeding the learning curve for both.
• Optimized for Languages & Tools. Created in response to requests from our partners, the Visual Studio Shell gives you the option of integrating your tools with Visual Studio or creating an isolated, custom-branded application.

Get Started

The Visual Studio 2008 Shell Preview is now available. To begin developing and testing your own Shell instance, download Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2. The SDK contains everything you need to build packages for the Visual Studio Shell, as well as basic documentation to help you get started. For more information on features, customization points, and how-to resources, read the Shell details page.

FAQ

Q: How much will the Visual Studio Shell cost?

The Visual Studio Shell will be freely available as part of the Visual Studio SDK starting with the release of Visual Studio 2008. Building and deploying applications based on the Visual Studio Shell will be royalty-free.

Q: How do I build on top of the Visual Studio Shell?

The Visual Studio SDK contains basic documentation to help you get started integrating your products into the Visual Studio Shell. Developers who want a deeper technical relationship with Microsoft can also join the (VSIP) program for more focused development assistance.

Q: Can you explain the integrated mode and the isolated mode?

The integrated mode installs into the same application environment as Visual Studio, enabling developers to use the premium tools of Visual Studio alongside their custom tools.  The isolated mode allows partners to create a unique application instance, isolated from other versions of Visual Studio installed on the machine. To fit the common usage scenarios of our partners, the integrated mode enables developers to build on the look and feel of Visual Studio, while the isolated mode provides the option to custom brand the application.

Q: What's the difference between the Visual Studio Shell and Visual Studio Tools for Applications (VSTA)?

These two offerings leverage the power of Visual Studio to meet two distinct development needs. The Visual Studio Shell enables developers to rapidly create and distribute their own custom tools by building on a streamlined Visual Studio IDE. VSTA enables ISVs and enterprises to embed a streamlined Visual Studio IDE into their applications, accelerating the development of customizations by end users, resellers, systems integrators, and internal teams. 

In addition, the Visual Studio Shell is designed to accelerate the development of specialized tools and programming languages, so it does not include languages or compilers. In contrast, VSTA is designed to facilitate faster customization of applications, so it includes support for languages Visual Basic and Visual C# along with other tools for application customization.

Q: I’m interested in using the Visual Studio Shell. How can I find more information?

Find additional news and information about the Visual Studio Shell on the VSX Team Blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/vsxteam. To inquire about using the Visual Studio Shell in your next application, contact vsipinfo@microsoft.com.