Useful add-ons or plugins for the Visual Studio Embedded Developer

Question

There are many different add-ins for Visual Studio, see the Visual Studio Gallery . Share your impressions and favorites.

As a motivation, here are some of my favorites:

• Versioning Controlled Build [F / O] - a very convenient extension for automatic numbering assembly
• Gadgets SlickEdit [F] - A useful editor gadget, built-in file explorer ...
• SlickEdit Tools [C] - Editing and Versioning Tools
• Reactor! for C ++ [F / C] - refactoring code in C ++, such as C #
• WiX [F / O] - Creating Windows Installer Installations Using XML
• AnkhSVN [F / O] - Use subversion from within your IDE
• Visual Leak Detector [F / O] - Assistant for Debugging Problems
• Parasoft C ++ [C] test - a package for ensuring the quality of code
• Parasoft Insure ++ [C] - memory analysis at runtime
• RockScroll [F] - helper for scrolling in long files
• Axialis IconWorkshop [F / C] - icon and raster editor
• PowerCommands [F] - adds some useful commands to the context menu
• IncrediBuild [C] - speed up the build process
• Whiz Workspace [F / C] - Many useful add-ons
• Consolas Font Pack [F] - a very good font for programming
• Intel Parallel Studio [C] - optimized for Intel C / C ++ compiler analyzer and debug-helper
• Extensions IDE Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 [F] - only for VS2005, Outliner / C ++ Snippets / ...
• codekana [F] - very similar to Visual Assist
• Visual Local History [F] - Local File History à la Eclipse
• ResOrg [F] - Management and numbering of resource symbol identifiers
• PVS-Studio [C] - static code analyzer, especially the analysis of 64-bit code (Viva64)
• Spell Checking ASP.NET/HTML for VS [F] - Spell Checking.

Instruments

• Ranorex [C] - GUI for testing and automation of the GUI
• OneTime [F / C] - Project Management Software
• CppCheck [F / O] - Static C / C ++ Code Analysis
• Online GUID Generator [F] - if you need a GUID
• WinMerge [F] - file / directory comparison
• codepad [F] - online compiler
• Cilk ++ [F / C] - optimize your application for multi-core processors
• Microsoft Application Verifier [F] - Runtime Checker for Native Code
• SourceMonitor [F] - A simple tool for measuring code metrics
• WinUnit [F] - good unit testing for native (C / C ++) code on Windows
• Very Sleepy [F] - A Simple Code Profiling Tool
• Visual Sidekick [P] is an efficient but cheap incremental search for characters and files.
• CodeAnalyst [F] - AMD code profiling tool (also partially runs on Intel)
• Sisulizer [C] - Visualization software localization tool.
• Innovasys HelpStudio Lite [F / C] - Create Microsoft Help 2.x help systems.

To break coffee

• Powder Toy [F] - Create exciting simulations yourself.
• OE-CAKE [F / C] - create fluid simulation yourself.

Your suggestions:

• ViEmu [C] - VI emulation
• Visual Assist [C] - "La Crème de la Crème"
• VisualSVN [C] is a very good SVN provider
• Visual Lint [C] - Advanced Static Code Analysis
• VSFileExplorer [F] - self-service
• P / Invoke [F] - Helps you find your own code signatures for managed code.

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[F] - freeware [O] - open source [C] - commercial.

Answer 1

I am amazed that Visual Assist has not been mentioned yet!

Answer 2

ViEmu is my personal favorite. Emulates VI directly inside VS .: ^)

Answer 3

BTW, this message is essentially the same.

Answer 4

Nobody uses Resharper ? - Shame on you!; -)

Seriously, you don’t know what you are missing (I know, because I have not yet convinced my boss to buy it, and my evaluation period has expired)

Adding this tool to visual studio almost brings it to the level of IntelliJ Idea for Java

Answer 5

RockScroll is awesome, but there is something more powerful: MetalScroll :)

btw ... I also recommend this patch: http://code.google.com/p/metalscroll/issues/detail?id=9

Answer 6

VSFileExplorer is a good file explorer for VS. It is also very useful when used with subversion / tortoiseSVN, as it displays the turtle overlay icons in VS.

and of course,

GhostDoc for generating XML document comments for methods, properties, classes, ...

Answer 7

• Visual assist x
• P / invoke
• Refactor!

Answer 8

help is very helpful, visual lint is good, but boring.

Answer 9

Drawback: Linkify , which simplifies links in comments on dev wiki, msdn, error debugger, etc.

Answer 10

My two pennies are: TabStudio and RockScroll .

The Studio tab is uber-awesome when working with WPF / Silverlight applications, trying to track any number of codes, presentation models, and xaml.

Rock scroll is great for large files and quick search links.