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Extend Visual Studio

By using the Visual Studio 2012 SDK, you can create tool windows, menu commands, editor extensions, isolated shell projects, and other extensions for Visual Studio. The SDK uses an experimental instance of Visual Studio to help you test and debug your extensions while preserving your primary development environment.

Essential Downloads and Resources

Download the Visual Studio 2012 SDK

Tools and templates for building Visual Studio extensions.

Visualization and Modeling SDK

Use the Visualization and Modeling SDK with the Visual Studio SDK to create graphical and form-based modeling designers (DSL), and extend Visual Studio UML designers. Also answer your questions about your code’s structure by querying the code index.

Get Started with Extending Visual Studio

Learn how to customize and extend Visual Studio to automate tasks or add features.

Team Foundation Server 2010 SDK

Samples and documention for the Team Foundation Server SDK.

Partner Solutions

Extensibility - Visual Studio Team Blog

Extend Visual Studio

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Extending Team Foundation Server

TFS Extensibility - Jim Lamb's Blog

Extend Visual Studio

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Additional Resources

Forums Forums

Discuss extending VS, including the SDK, Text Templates, add-ins, and macros.

Generate Load Key Generate Load Key

Get package and shell load keys for Visual Studio 2008 and earlier versions.

VSIP Program Information VSIP Program Information

Learn about the VSIP program.

Featured Partners

eDev Technologies
inteGREAT, a requirements tool integrates bi-directionally with TFS and Office. Users can elicit analyze validate review and manage requirements; while sharing a common understanding of requirements.