Visual Studio

Our 17.14 release of VisualStudio.Extensibility includes the following features:

• Text classification support
• Updates to the ShowPromptAsync API

This release also includes a previously mentioned change regarding .NET runtime management requirements. VisualStudio.Extensibility extensions are executed on a separate .NET runtime host, unlike VSSDK extensions which run in the same process as devenv.exe, using the .NET Framework runtime. Since VisualStudio.Extensibility extensions operate on .NET, we must adhere to the runtime servicing lifetime of .NET. Consequently, the VisualStudio.Extensibility platform will be regularly updated to advance to newer versions of .NET LTS. For more information on how this affects you as an extension developer or consumer, please refer to our documentation here.

Note: VS 17.14 was released 14 days ago. This VS blog post highlights and elaborates on this topic.

Explicit Assembly References are stand-alone assemblies directly referenced in your project. They are not pulled in through NuGet packages, project references, or the Global Assembly Cache (GAC). These assemblies often represent legacy .NET Framework components, especially those compiled for 32-bit, which are not easily upgraded to modern .NET and may exist outside of package management.

Until now, the Toolbox in the Windows Forms designer only displayed controls sourced from NuGet packages or project references.