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Commands that must be run after installation

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If you deploy your extension through a .msi file, you must run devenv /setup as part of your installation in order for Visual Studio to discover your extensions.

Note

The information in this topic applies to finding devenv.exe with Visual Studio 2008 and earlier. For information about how to discover devenv.exe with later versions of Visual Studio, see Detect system requirements.

Find devenv.exe

You can locate each version's devenv.exe from registry values that Visual Studio installers write, using the RegLocator table and AppSearch tables to store the registry values as properties. For more information, see Detect system requirements.

RegLocator table rows to locate devenv.exe from different versions of Visual Studio

Signature Root Key Name Type
RL_DevenvExe_2002 2 SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\7.0\Setup\VS EnvironmentPath 2
RL_DevenvExe_2003 2 SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\7.1\Setup\VS EnvironmentPath 2
RL_DevenvExe_2005 2 SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\Setup\VS EnvironmentPath 2
RL_DevenvExe_2008 2 SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\Setup\VS EnvironmentPath 2

AppSearch table rows for corresponding RegLocator table rows

Property Signature
DEVENV_EXE_2002 RL_DevenvExe_2002
DEVENV_EXE_2003 RL_DevenvExe_2003
DEVENV_EXE_2005 RL_DevenvExe_2005
DEVENV_EXE_2008 RL_DevenvExe_2008

For example, the Visual Studio installer writes the registry value of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\Setup\VS\EnvironmentPath as C:\VS2008\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe, a complete path to the executable the installer must run.

Note

Because the RegLocator table's Type column is 2, it is not necessary to specify additional version information in the Signature table.

Run devenv.exe

After the AppSearch standard action runs in the installer, each property in the AppSearch table has a value pointing to the devenv.exe file for the corresponding version of Visual Studio. If any of the specified registry values are not present — because that version of Visual Studio is not installed — the specified property is set to null.

Windows Installer supports running an executable to which a property points through custom action type 50. The custom action should include the in-script execution options, msidbCustomActionTypeInScript (1024) and msidbCustomActionTypeCommit (512), to ensure that the VSPackage has been successfully installed before integrating it into Visual Studio. For more information, see CustomAction table and Custom action in-script execution options.

Custom actions of type 50 specify the property containing the executable as the value of the Source column and command-line arguments in the Target column.

CustomAction table rows to run devenv.exe

Action Type Source Target
CA_RunDevenv2002 1586 DEVENV_EXE_2002 /setup
CA_RunDevenv2003 1586 DEVENV_EXE_2003 /setup
CA_RunDevenv2005 1586 DEVENV_EXE_2005 /setup
CA_RunDevenv2008 1586 DEVENV_EXE_2008 /setup

Custom actions must be authored into the InstallExecuteSequence table to schedule them for execution during the installation. Use the corresponding property in each row of the Condition column to prevent the custom action from being run if that version of Visual Studio is not installed on the system.

Note

Null-valued properties evaluate to False when used in conditions.

The value of the Sequence column for each custom action depends on other sequence values in your Windows Installer package. Sequence values should be such that the devenv.exe custom actions run as close as possible to immediately prior to the InstallFinalize standard action.

InstallExecuteSequence table to schedule the devenv.exe custom actions

Action Condition Sequence
CA_RunDevenv2002 DEVENV_EXE_2002 6602
CA_RunDevenv2003 DEVENV_EXE_2003 6603
CA_RunDevenv2005 DEVENV_EXE_2005 6605
CA_RunDevenv2008 DEVENV_EXE_2008 6608

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