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I just downloaded a VSIX file from the Visual Studio Gallery.

How do I install it in Visual Studio?

slhck
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KdgDev
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    Open it using `VSIXInstaller.exe` found inside `Common7/IDE` in your Visual Studio installation. – osvein Nov 22 '14 at 13:06

11 Answers11

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VSIX is a Visual Studio extension installer. You must have Visual Studio 2010 or newer in order to install them, but you should be able to install it by double-clicking the .vsix file. Alternatively you should be able to install it from within the VS Extension Manager (Tools->Extension Manger)

See more about VSIX files at Quan To's Visual Studio Extensibility blog

heavyd
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The above answers didn't help me; I couldn't install it through the extension manager and there was not default application for .vsix. However, I needed to open it (right click > Open with...) with Microsoft Visual Studio Version Selector and it worked.

Small update: For VS 2013, you need the corresponding version of NuGet: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/4ec1526c-4a8c-4a84-b702-b21a8f5293ca. Otherwise, the version selecter will tell you it's already installed on all fitting versions.

Cedric Reichenbach
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How to install Visual Studio Extensions

To summarise, there are three options:

  1. Install via Extension Manager (Tools/Options)
  2. Install via Visual Studio Gallery.com (download and open directly or save then double-click)
  3. Install via "xcopy" into %localappdata%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Extensions
jnm2
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Benjol
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    The path above isn't quite right. Go to %localappdata%, then to .\Microsoft\VisualStudio\{versionNumber}\Extensions. – GaTechThomas Jul 22 '15 at 23:33
  • @GaTechThomas - this helped me install NuGet package manager on a Win 7 machine where I didn't have admin rights; thanks. VSIX installation was not working otherwise – transistor1 Sep 18 '15 at 20:24
  • @GaTechThomas, looking at the date, I suspect that path was for XP, and yours is for Win7+ – Benjol Sep 22 '15 at 05:33
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    #3 was the one for me. Instead of using `xcopy`, I instead renamed the extension to `.zip` and extracted them to my `%localappdata%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\xx.x\Extensions` folder. – sa_leinad Jul 05 '18 at 03:18
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If all the above options fail, try installing it from the VS Developer command-line. Here's how (on StackOverflow):

How to install Visual Studio Gallery extensions from command line

VSIXInstaller.exe /quiet some_extension.vsix

You can find VSIXInstaller here (on your local PC - depending on the Visual Studio version replace 14.0 by the version you're using):

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE

To display the installer dialog(s), remove the /quiet option.

Note:

  • To uninstall a VSIX extension, you need to know its vsixID (here is described how to get it), then you can use

    VSIXInstaller.exe /uninstall:vsixID

  • To install/uninstall VSIX files for a specific Visual Studio version, use the switches /skuName:name and /skuVersion:version; you can see all options of the command line tool if you type VSIXInstaller.exe /? in the developer command prompt.

Matt
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Did you know that the VSIX is nothing more than a ZIP file. After double clicking on it, the VS selector prompts you for each installed version of Visual Studio to install it too. This is where vs picks an arbitrary folder name and unpacks the content to the %AppData%\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio##\Extensions folder. So Benjol was partially correct save for unpacking the files from the VXIS(again which is a Zip).

Rashad Rivera
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  • You can unzip yourself by changing the extension to .zip. Then you can manually drop it in the extensions folder. – Ben Wilde Nov 18 '15 at 19:55
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When I double-click on vsix file, I get an error "The requested operation requires elevation". As a result,

  • I opened cmd as administrator and navigated to the target folder.
  • Type the vsix file name and hit enter.

VSIXInstaller showed up and started to execute the vsix file and I was able to complete the installation of the component. Hope this helps in case someone is having a similar trouble. Cheers

AntiqTech
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VSIXInstaller in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\resources\app\ServiceHub\Services\Microsoft.VisualStudio.Setup.Service

tang
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The only option that you would see if you have at least one Visual studio version installed is to double click the file. I was able to install to both the Visual studio versions that I have using that.

user040620
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Just recently Visual Studio stopped opening my VSIX files when clicking Download on the Marketplace website. It kept asking me which application to use to open VSIX files. I was able to install them by browsing for the VSIXInstaller.exe file in the Visual Studio IDE folder, mine was here:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\Common7\IDE\VSIXInstaller.exe"

pwhe23
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Rename the .vsix file to .zip, extract it to a folder and move it to \AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\"X.X"\Extensions where "X.X" is your VS version.

Arvy
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I think you just reload Visual Studio after downloading the VSIX. During the launch Visual Studio looks for the VSIX file and incorporates all the required changes.