The other day I was asked which extensions for Visual Studio I use so in an effort to save keystrokes, I thought I’d list them here so I can refer people to this list. There’s no way this is a comprehensive list and I do add and remove extensions all the time. However, these are the ones that always stay installed because if they aren’t, I can’t use Visual Studio. By the way, these are all free.
Want a bunch of features for the next version of Visual Studio today? That’s exactly what Microsoft’s Productivity Power Tools are all about. Once you use the awesome Solution Navigator, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. Add in the better Tab Well UI, Quick Find, and all the other enhancements and you’re in Visual Studio heaven. This is the single most important extension available.
The first time you add an open source package to your solution, you’ll thank your lucky stars for this extension. It’s quick and easy so you can focus on what you need to do instead of the integration. What I find even better than the package manager is that NuGet adds a PowerShell window to Visual Studio. I’m using that constantly these days because the $dte variable exposes the Visual Studio automation model to PowerShell.
This fine extension adds color-coding to output windows in Visual Studio. Seeing build breaks in red and good builds in green, as well as control over all other output, is something that should have been built into Visual Studio already. The latest version 1.1 update fixes a crashing issue people were reporting.
I can’t spell at all and this extension keeps me from looking like moron as others look at the comments in my code.
A super simple extension that does exactly what the title says. It’s wonderful when doing presentations to highlight a word and for looking at all uses of a global variable. Note that this extension offers no customizability so you’re stuck with the lime green highlight that does not work so well with you wild kids using dark background themes.
So what extensions can you not live without? I’d love to know what extensions you use so either blog about them or add them to the comments.
Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are two of the most popular cloud platforms.…
Cloud management is difficult to do manually, especially if you work with multiple cloud…
Azure’s scalable infrastructure is often cited as one of the primary reasons why it's the…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDzCN0d8SeA Watch our "Unlocking the Power of AI in your Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)"…
FinOps is a strategic approach to managing cloud costs. It combines financial management best practices…
Using Kubernetes with Azure combines the power of Kubernetes container orchestration and the cloud capabilities…
View Comments
My additions to the list (+1 for each PPT and NuGet)
XAML Intellisense presenter - includes Pascal casing for Xaml intellisense, other enhancements. http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/1a67eee3-fdd1-4745-b290-09d649d07ee0
Spell Checker - Keeps me honest with my comment and string content - http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/7c8341f1-ebac-40c8-92c2-476db8d523ce
GhostDoc - If the method names I have come up with don't lead to clear Xml document comments, maybe I need to rethink my method names (and sometimes maybe not) http://submain.com/products/ghostdoc.aspx
Resharper - I also think CodeRush and JustCode are viable alternatives - each tool has its strengths. I've been using R# since around rev 1, so I'm more familiar with it. http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper
--JMG
Some unmentioned extensions I have:
Hide Main Menu - I'm not really using the main menu since I know shortcuts for all frequent commands and "Quick Access" window (Ctrl+3) from Productivity Power Tools makes searching for all other commands faster.
VSCommands 2010 - they can keep default document zoom factor at a specified level. I find that useful while working on big monitors (30"). Setting larger font wouldn't produce the font I used to...
Plus 'locate in solution' command is useful enough.
John, completely agree with your list. I also recommend "Resource Refactoring Tool 2010", available at: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/39ae29d3-81e1-43d4-9c48-fc9644869d84?SRC=VSIDE
This allows you to extract literal strings in your code into a resource file, which is really handy.
vsvim and ankhsvn. I love them too.
VSFile Nav is a life saver when your solution contains a large number of projects. Instead of browsing individual projects for a file that you remember part of its name, a popup (assigned to a hot key, Ctrl+1) will list all the files that contain this part so you can open this file. Highly recommended.
This one isn't free but very effective for anyone who needs to localize their app: http://www.hexadigm.com
* CodeMaid -- code cleanup, complexity metrics, a single class explorer pane ("snooper")
* Highlight all occurrences
* Indent Guides -- adds vertical block ident/scope guides and scope ending labels
* Productivity Power Tools -- like their Solution Navigator and scroll bar. Tab Well might be considered good, but Tab Studio is 10x better.
* VSColorOutput
* VSCommands
+ Tab Studio -- just a lifesaver for me because I like to open lots of tabs and hate scrolling them. But this is a VS add-on, not an extension. And it is paid. But it also works in SQL Server Management Studio :)
"Highlight All Occurrences of a Selected Word" is a godforsaken slow piece of crap when it comes to large files.
We really need a replacement for it.
* Presentation Zoom -- change the zoom factor and it's effective in all documents. Why is this not the default?!
Visual Smarter is a good tool to try. It is an add-on for Visual Studio. It makes .NET coding easier and smarter.
http://visualsmarter.blogspot.com/