Develop VSIX for VS2010 under VS2012?

Question

Is there a way to develop a VSIX extension under Visual Studio 2012, which then could be installed in Visual Studio 2010? I've tried to set version range for Microsoft.VisualStudio.Pro target to [10.0,11.0], but when I launch a compiled VSIX, it offers only VS2012 to be install into.

I know it is possible to develop VSIX under VS2010, which is applicable for VS2012, though it requires to manually edit a .vsixmanifest file. But I wonder if it is possible to use newer VS2012 for developing?

Surpassing

Mikhail, I've been searching frantically, trying to find how to make a VISX file install to both VS 2010 & VS 2012. You mention that it's possible, but requires manually editing the vsixmanifest file. Can you point me to anywhere that explains how to do that? Or can you describe what has to be done? I imagine it's a simple edit, but I can't find the details of what to do anywhere. TIA. – Concertino

I found it! A new version entry has to be added under the SupportedProducts node (basically a duplication of the existing one, with 11.0 instead of 10.0). I had found that piece of information previously, & I tried it, but it didn't seem to work. But it works now! – Concertino

Answer 1

You can, but have to create manually the source.extension.vsixmanifest file in the 1.0 format (handled by VS2010), whereas VS2012 uses version 2.0. You will only lose the visual property editor.

You also need to make sure that you've compiled against .NET 4.0 or lower rather than .NET 4.5.

Kowalski

Sure, no. I couldn't get VS 2010 to appear as a target while using a v2.0 anyway. The documentation of 2.0 seems to be only for VS2012 which comforts me in my answer: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh696828.aspx – Kowalski