
The Visual Studio extensions deployment technologies also improved over the time. Later Microsoft announced the Visual Studio SDK packages, a newer mechanism that provides deeper Visual Studio IDE integration through lower level API.

In Visual Studio 2005, add-in supports a simplified deployment using XML. NET and COM was introduced along with Visual Studio. Over time the add-in mechanism has improved. Add-ins, Visual Studios primary extensibility option, was implemented via COM interfaces. While some are mere novelties, those for development tools like Eclipse and Visual Studio offer developers significant productivity boosts.Įarlier versions of Visual Studio were built on top of COM technology.

They are popular in many applications, including modern web browsers Internet Explorer and Firefox, Microsoft Office, Media Players, Photoshop, Eclipse, Visual Studio and etc. Extensions provide additional functions or customization for a core application.
