When you install Visual Studio, several different WiX extensions are installed by default. These include the Extension for Visual Studio, the WiX Toolset VS Extension, and the WiX Toolset SDK. Each of these has a different purpose and is designed to work together to help you create Windows Installer-based setups.
The Extension for Visual Studio provides project templates, build customizations, and other integration that make it easy to use the WiX Toolset from within Visual Studio.
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The WiX Toolset VS Extension adds a menu item to the Visual Studio Tools menu, which gives you quick access to common WiX tasks such as building setup projects and editing source files. The WiX Toolset SDK contains documentation and samples that show how to use the WiX Toolset to create setup projects.
You can also install other WiX extensions that add additional functionality. For example, the WixEdit Extension adds a graphical editor for editing WiX source files. The WixEdit Extension is available from the WixEdit website. Once you have installed the extension, you will see a new menu item under the Tools menu called WixEdit.
To add an extension to Visual Studio:
- In Visual Studio, select Tools > Extensions and Updates
- Select Online in the left-hand pane.
- In the Search Online text box, type “WiX” and press [Enter]
- Locate the desired extension in the list of results and click Download
WiX Extensions can be found online through various websites or through the Extensions and Updates tool in Visual Studio.
Adding extensions to your already installed Visual Studio is simple and only requires a few steps that are easy to follow.
The first step is finding the extension that you want to install. You can find many different types of extensions for Visual Studio on different websites; a good place to start looking is on Microsoft’s official website where they have a whole section dedicated to extensions.
Once you have found an extension that interests you, the next step is downloading it. Most extensions will come in a .vsix file format which is what you will need to run the extension installer.
Now that you have your .vsix file, open up your copy of Visual Studio and go into Tools –> Extensions and Updates –> Online –> search for your extension by its name or author.
When you find it in the list of results, all you need to do is click “Download” and follow any on-screen instructions.
After installation has completed successfully, restart Visual Studio for changes to take effect and begin using your new extension!