Load VS2005 Add-in In VS2008 Upgrading VS2005 Addins to VS2008 by Les Smith

How do I get a VS2005 Addin to work in VS2008?  As always, when Microsoft releases a new version of Visual Studio, one of the first things to go down is an Add-in.  But the neat thing this time, as you install VS2008, is that the change to upgrade your Addins does not have to be significant.

First, it is neat to know that VS2008 can build an addin that will run in VS2005.  If you go through the Addin Wizard in VS2008, it will ask you which viersions of the IDE that you want to build for.  And it says that you can create the Addin for both VS2008 and VS2005.  However, I did do this and do not find the "test" .addin file in the place where my VS2005 .addin files normally go.  The .addin file for VS2008 does appear under ..user\Documents\VS2008\Addins.

Now, to the problem of getting VS2008 to see your VS2005 addins.  First, copy your .addin files from your user\documents\VS2005\Addins folder to the user\documents\VS2008\Addins folder.  I had to manually create the Addins folder under VS2008; the installation of the VS2008 release did not do it automatically.

Next, go into the .addin files and chage one character.  A simple .addin file will look as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16" standalone="no"?>
<Extensibility xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/AutomationExtensibility">
    <HostApplication>
       <Name>Microsoft Visual Studio</Name>
       <Version>8.0</Version>
    </HostApplication>
    <Addin>
       <FriendlyName>NetRefactor2005 </FriendlyName>
       <Description>Refactoring and Class Organizing for C# and VB.NET.</Description>
       <Assembly>C:\Program Files\KnowDotNet\NetRefactor2005\NetRefactor2005.DLL</Assembly>
       <FullClassName>NetRefactor2005.Connect</FullClassName>
       <LoadBehavior>0</LoadBehavior>
       <CommandPreload>0</CommandPreload>
       <CommandLineSafe>0</CommandLineSafe>
    </Addin>
</Extensibility>

Note the one line above that says "<Version>8.0</Version>".  Simply change the "8" to "9" and save the file.  Now when you go to the Addin Manager, you will be able to see the VS2005 addin and if you set the addin to load, when you close the Addin Manager, the addin will automatically connect.

I have not tried to see if you must still have the runtime for VS2005 on your machine since I still have it installed and will have for some long time, I can't test that.  However, some of the blogs imply that 2003/2005 apps will run under the 2008 runtime (called multi-targeting).  Don't take this from me.  If you really want to know you will need a computer with only 2008 on it.

Hope this little tip will keep you from pulling hair out.

Have you tried our newest product, Visual Class Organizer?  You'll be amazed how easy it is to keep the code in your code windows organized.  TRY IT FREE FOR 30 DAYS BY CLICKING HERE.

If you are developing in C# and haven't tried CSharpCompleter, you are wasting valuable time typing hundreds of braces {} daily needlessly.  Try CSharpCompleter for 30 DAYS FREE.

Ask a Question, or give your feedback on my articles or products by going to the KnowDotNet Forum or by clicking on My Blog.