Hi all,
In order to write an installer for my shiny new add-in I need to drop my add-in
dll and its assocaited ".addin" file into the VS "Addins" folder (if it exists).
How does an installer find this folder? Or am I expected to put my add-in under
Program Files and modify some registry setting to point VS 2005 at it?
TIA - Bob
Wen Yuan Wang [MSFT] - 01 Apr 2008 07:32 GMT
Hello Bob,
Because there is no preset target name for VS addin folder, we must have to
create a custom folder with DefaultLocation property
([PersonalFolder]\Visual studio 2005\Addins]) in setup project. Jim Glass
has a good post giving detailed instructions for building a setup project
for a Visual Studio 2005 Add-in.
You may refer to
http://blogs.msdn.com/jim_glass/archive/2005/08/18/453218.aspx
[Deploying Add-Ins]
Hope this helps. Please feel free to let us know if there is anything
unclear. We are glad to assist you.
Have a great day,
Best regards,
Wen Yuan
Microsoft Online Community Support
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Peter Macej - 01 Apr 2008 08:20 GMT
See also this discussion:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/vsnetaddin/message/3327
There are some potential problems mentioned that you should take care
of. Especially with non-English OS versions.

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Peter Macej
Helixoft - http://www.helixoft.com
VSdocman - Commenter and generator of class documentation for C#, VB
.NET and ASP .NET code
Bob Altman - 07 Apr 2008 23:45 GMT
Thanks for the great links. Obviously, MS doesn't make it easy to write an
installer that takes into account user IDE customizations (the user can move the
default project folder, thus moving the Addins folder) and non-English file
names. Sigh...
As it turns out, I've decided not to pursue the add-in at all. I've found an
easier and more straightforward way to solve the problem that my add-in was
designed to address.
Thanks again for the help!
Bob