What is your favorite Visual Studio add-in/setting?

Question

What add-in/setting in Visual Studio can you not live without? Which one improves your productivity or fixes something you can't stand in Visual Studio? Why is it your favorite?

My favorite is aspx edit helper because it does really improve my productivity when working with ASP.NET applications. What it does is provide a quick way to type out server side controls, it automatically fills in runat="server" and id="" and puts your cursor in between the quotes of ID so you can type it in.

Here is a summarized list of all the plugins discussed so far

1. ASPX Edit Helper - Snippets for editing asp.net
2. Re-Sharper - Fast Refactoring
3. Power Commands
4. Reflector
5. GhostDoc - Generates XML comments
6. Visual Assist X
7. Rock Scroll
8. TestDriven.NET
9. NCover
10. AnkhSVN - SVN Integration
11. ViEmu - Vim Emulation
12. VisualSVN - SVN Integration
13. Theme Generator
14. Skype Add-in
15. XML Explorer
16. Resource Refactoring
17. Linq2Sql Debugger Visualizer - Easily debug Linq2SQL
18. Visual Studio File Explorer
19. Visual Studio Window Manager
20. TFS PowerToys
21. Expression Tree Visualizer
22. StyleCop
23. Regions Manager
24. Regionerate
25. Code Keep - Manage Code Snippets from anywhere
26. CR Documentor
27. DXCore Community Plugins
28. NUnit
29. CodeRush Xpress
30. JSLint
31. NUnit for VS - NUnit integration
32. Instant Gratification - Tells you how awesome your code is
33. Entrian Source Search, a Code Search add-in. "Find In Files" on steroids.
34. Goanna - static analysis for C/C++
35. StudioTools
36. USysWare DPack Code Browser - Fast code navigation

Answer 1

ReSharper! - It blows away the refactoring utils that are built-in to VS, and the default hotkeys as well. Once you get used to it, you'll never want to work on a VS installation that doesn't have it!

And if you use Subversion, VisualSVN is awesome!

Answer 2

Visual Assist X for C++, and .Net languages

See this page for a rundown of all the features.

Answer 3

I second ReSharper. Can't live without it. The best investment I have made so far (regarding development).

Answer 4

Mostly amusing but I use it every time I reinstall Visual Studio is the Theme Generator, http://frickinsweet.com/tools/Theme.mvc.aspx

Answer 5

DevExpress CodeRush and Refactor!

Answer 6

One that I have found beneficial from time to time has to be the Skype in Visual Studio. Here is a great tutorial on how to implement it yourself: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/Skype_in_Visual_Studio.aspx

It also includes the code so it makes it available to play with your own Visual Studio add in. Which in my opinion is the best part of the article.

A close second would be the following for XPath expressions: http://www.codeplex.com/xmlexplorer

Answer 7

AnkhSVN, actually. Especially now that it's an actual SCC plugin.

Answer 8

• ReSharper is totally amazing. It does everything and it does it well! It's almost impossible to WRITE extremely stupid code, as it warns you about a truly stunning amount of things.
• PowerCommands for Visual Studio are handy to have around. "Open Containing Folder" and "Collapse Projects" are two features I use constantly.
• Reflector is an everyday miracle of life.
• GhostDoc is nice and convenient too as about 50% of the time it makes XML comments automatically that are almost exactly what need to be said and require only minor tweaking

Answer 9

I actually have a favorite setting: Since i installed dark theme on my VS i'm getting the code from totally different point of view. And i like it.

Answer 10

It is vi emulator ViEmu. If you are used to using vim then this is one for VS.NET.

Increases the productivity a lot and i am keyboard freak who hates using mouse.

I have been using it for an year now and it is really stable.

Answer 11

VisualSVN for source control

Answer 12

My eyes are much happier since I started using the zenburn fonts and colours scheme. Soothing.

Answer 13

Recently started to use this addin from Mindscape.

It has the potential to reduce context switches between VS and Windows Explorer (i.e. to get at Tortoise SVN or something) and has a neat feature that lets you start a command prompt in a directory in you source tree.

Answer 14

I'll cast another vote for both ReSharper and Visual Assist X. Both are great tools that greatly add to the Visual Studio experience in significant ways that have to be experienced to fully appreciate. I use both and appreciate both of them. I have used Visual Assist X for several years, and wouldn't want to program without it. I just started to use ReSharper, and I have become a huge fan of it, after using it to go through all my .Net code and correcting all the little code issues that it found, and my code was much better afterwards, and it even helped me find a potential bug or two that had remained hidden for quite some time, as well as identifying variables and code blocks that would never be executed, so they could be excised.

So, despite the ramble, I wholeheartedly vote for both ReSharper and Visual Assist X.

Answer 15

I just found a great article talking about Ten Essential Visual Studio Add-ins every developer should know about, you can check it out here.

Answer 16

All but one of the Add-ins I use daily have already been mentioned by others, so I'll just throw in the Resource Refactoring Tool. Quite simply, it lets you take any hard-coded string, it creates a resource definition for it, and replaces all instances of that string in the entire project with a reference to the resource. Crazy handy when you have to write code with localization in mind.

Answer 17

If you are a Linq2SQL user, the Linq 2 SQL Debugger Visualizer is a must have.. You can get it here

Answer 18

Visual Studio Window Manager allows you to manage and save window layouts for visual studio, this is very helpful for me because I like to hide all my toolbars by default, but sometimes to are helpful to have around.

Answer 19

Roland Weigelt's GhostDoc

Answer 20

CodeRush & Refactor Pro

Answer 21

Reflector

ReSharper

PowerCommands for Visual Studio

AnkhSVN (if you're using Subversion)

VSTS 2008 TFS Power Toys (if you're using TFS)

Answer 22

When debugging Expression Trees in VS 2008 the Expression Tree Visualizer is great - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb397975.aspx

Answer 23

Currently I love using StyleCop for Visual Studio. It is brilliant in assisting with Code Formatting and Rules. ALso it is a free product from Microsoft based on .Net Best Practices. As far as I know it only works for C#,

Answer 24

The Regions Manager Add-In is great, It allows you to manage regions, move code into new regions or existing ones easily. It helps out a lot if you utilize regions heavily.

Edit: I also stumbled on another really good region manager plugin called regionerate.

Answer 25

Visual Local History Allows you to have a revision history for local projects that you haven't placed in source control yet. This gives you the ability to keep revisions even when you are creating test/throw away projects.

Answer 26

Trac Explorer provides integration with Trac from within Visual Studio. This is a must have for any shop thats using Trac.

Answer 27

Xml Visualizer allows you to apply XSLT style sheets and run xpath queries on XML data, along with viewing the data better.

Answer 28

Dispatch is what the Copy Web Site function should have been

Answer 29

Here is a great site that lists a lot of visual studio plugins. http://www.visualstudiogallery.com/

Answer 30

Also check out: "Pimp My IDE": 101 Visual Studio tips, tricks, and add-ins

Answer 31

ViEmu, my muscle memory has the Vi keybindings ingrained in it.

Answer 32

DXCore Community Plugins is a collection of plugins built for DXCore (common IDE integration framework)

Answer 33

NDepend is a fantastic code analysis tool, easily the best I have seen for understanding your (or someone else's) code at multiple levels. Draws pretty diagrams too, and comes with its own query language for easily defining your own FXCop-style requirements.

Answer 34

Well if you're an ASP.NET developer the Visual Studio spell checker is useful: http://blogs.msdn.com/mikhailarkhipov/archive/2006/04/17/577471.aspx

Answer 35

CodeSpell. Bad spelling looks unprofessional, and is difficult to refactor later in the project.

Answer 36

Mindscape file explorer and Regionerate are not mentioned yet, but my favorite is definitely Reshareper.

Answer 37

Re-sharper... now if only my company would buy me a copy.

Answer 38

As well as Resharper and VisualSVN, which have been mentioned numerous times already, I've also found the RegionTools macros by Roland Weigelt very useful and use them almost daily.

Answer 39

Multi-Lang Add-In allows you to easily manage localized applications.

Answer 40

Linq2SQL Tools Add-in Adds the ability to sync your DBML with your database, its not free though.

Answer 41

A cool setting I just found is adding a Guide Line on your editor so you can see if you are going over a certain amount of characters, Sara Ford shows you how here.

Answer 42

I love IncrediBuild, a distributed compiling tool.

Answer 43

NUnitForVS is great if you want to use NUnit without paying for VS integration.

Answer 44

CodeRush Xpress has come out and is being shipped for free!

Answer 45

VSFileExplorer is a nice file explorer for VS. It's also very helpful when used together with subversion/tortoiseSVN, since it displays the tortoise overlay icons within VS.

Answer 46

These Two:

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/TheNotifyIconExample

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/SEHE

Answer 47

I couldnt live without instant gratification from OS_CompilationResult. (It feels gimmicky, but I havent gotten around to uninstalling and a key feature is that you can start a build with Shift Ctrl B, switch to something else and it prompts when the build is finished). Of course my real answer is a +1 for CodeRush/Refactor Pro

Answer 48

If you use Trac and Subversion, check out TracExplorer as well. I created it for my own needs, and so far it's exceeded all expectations.

Answer 49

Are you tired of having to open VSTD IDE to build/rebuild/clean your project?

Then this might help:

http://www.codeplex.com/msbuildshellex

Answer 50

I only just found this, I wish I'd got it months earlier:

JSLint Visual Studio Addin

and the codeproject page with animations of it in action. My only gripe (which is a JSLint one) is that it warns about functions being undefined if they're not declared in order.

If you're using external libraries, you can stop JSLint throwing errors by adding the following, or equivalent to the top of the file:

/*extern $, jQuery */

Answer 51

Entrian Source Search, a Code Search add-in. Lets you search your source code in a fraction of a second, even for huge solutions. Gives syntax-coloured search results. Like Find In Files on steroids.

Answer 52

Goanna - a Visual Studio add-in for static analysis of C/C++. I can't live without it, because my day job is as a RedLizard Software programmer. :)

Answer 53

tangible T4 Editor is quite good for writing T4 templates

The free version has limited features, but it's nevertheless much better than the standard editor...

Answer 54

I'm surprised Cool Commands hasn't been mentioned yet. Can't do without them!

Answer 55

I love USysWare DPack Code Browser.

It opens a dialog with all available files in your solution with Alt-U. As you type, the available options filters accordingly. It does the same with the functions in the file with Alt-G. It's great!

That's much better than using the anti-navigable Solution Explorer tree.

The only drawback I see, it is a bit slow.

Answer 56

Hi

RockScroll rocks :)

Answer 57

The Solution Navigator in the vs2010 Productivity Power Tools is very nice. I love being able to quickly filter by modified or open files. Search feature is also a good addition.