How to deploy and register a VSPackage supporting multiple versions of Visual Studio (2005, 2008, 2010)?

Question

I have an open source VSPackage that I would like to release with support for Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio 2008, and Visual Studio 2010. I\'m trying to figure out how to c

Answer 1

Short Answer: If you want a single installer that targets/registers with 2005, 2008, & 2010, the choice is quite simple actually. You should create a MSI-based installer and register to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\(8.0|9.0|10.0).

Explanation: For the MSI/VSIX question...remember that VSIX is new for 2010. A machine with VS 2005/2008 won't know what to do with a VSIX file.

A side note on VSIX....you shouldn't ever put a VSIX file (i.e. the zip container) inside a MSI. If you want a MSI-based extension that also appears in the Extension Manager dialog, you should include a tag in your extension.vsixmanifest file, and lay down the files already expanded under \Common7\IDE\Extensions\.

As far as registration goes...you have a few things incorrect in your question. For both 2005 and 2008, installers that register packages with Visual Studio should always register under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. (PKgdef in 2008 was only for "Isolated Shell" based applications.) Laying down a pkgdef file is now a supported option in addition to the registry in Visual Studio 2010.

RegPkg is a utility included in the Visual Studio SDK for 2005/2008/2010 that reflects over your package assembly and outputs the appropriate registration information in several different formats. It's meant to be used at development/build time to generate your registration information and shouldn't be used as part of an installer.

CreatePkgDef.exe is a tool in 2010 that is essentially the same as RegPkg.exe, but it only outputs pkgdef files.