Sync Extensions in Visual Studio 2013 between multiple machines

Question

I'm sure this is a common problem, but I can't find much info about it.

Problem

I have a work computer, a home computer, a surface, and maybe some Azure VMs that i'd like my visual studio 2013 extensions synced across them. I seem to have to refresh/wipe a computer fairly often, and re-installing all the extensions I like to use is sort of a pain. I initally thought the new VS Profiles would do this, but apparently they only sync themes/general settings.

Attempted/Outdated Solutions

There used to be an extenstion that apparently did this Extension Sync

But that looks like it's only for VS 2010. There was also a blog post that showed the location that the extensions were saved in.
http://www.larswilhelmsen.com/2012/01/08/syncing-visual-studio-extensions-and-settings-with-dropbox/

Which looked like a perfect solution, except in 2013/2013 the extensions location must have changed, and I cannot find them.

Question

Does anyone know how I could sync my extensions across multiple machines? Or possibly know the location that the Extensions are stored in and if it's possible to change that location to something like Dropbox/Skydrive/Google Drive?

Hyper

Syncing Extension via some sort of file sync would not work. There are also bits of metadata stored in other files and in the registry that would get out of sync. – Naturopathy

Answer 1

If you've upgraded to Visual Studio 2015 there's a new extension that Microsoft just released for it called the Roaming Extension Manager.

It sounds like this is what you are looking for.

https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/7b421a95-c32c-4433-a2be-a41b276013ab?SRC=Home

Varicolored

Answer 2

There's something called the "User State Migration Tool" that is intended for preserving state in corporate PC desktop deployments for wipe-and-load, similar to your Azure scenario.

If you know something about the way the extension settings are saved (as shown in the blog), it's not too hard to construct an XML descriptor and use the deployment tool to apply the settings. The tool is command line so it is easily automated.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825142.aspx

This solution has increasing value when you have more than just Visual Studio to migrate into your VM.

Blinker

Answer 3

there is new Extention for Visual Studio 2022 there which allow to import/export Extension Manager

Banger