Is it possible to bundle a 3rd party extension in your visual studio integrated shell application?

Question

I have written a language and debug engine extension for visual studio, and I'm able to create a shell application from this extension. However, I'd like to include p4vs, as it's a pain trying to install that to the shell seperately, as the installer doesn't target shell applications.

Answer 1

I've discovered that this is indeed possible by following the instructions here.

But the basic gist is:

1. Create a subfolder in the Extensions/ subfolder
2. Rename the vsix extension to ".zip"
3. Using your favourite zip file manager, extract the files to your newly created extension folder from step 1
4. Delete the [Content_types].xml file
5. Optionally, edit the vsixmanifest file and add InstalledByMsi="true" to the element to prevent users from uninstalling the extension via the extension manager