Visual Studio SDKs

You need the Visual Studio SDK to develop:

  • Packages
  • Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) extensions
  • Domain-Specific Languages (DSL) extensions
  • Add-ins for Visual Studio 2013 (the add-in project template is supplied by the Visual Studio 2013 SDK; in previous versions it was supplied by Visual Studio itself)
Download URLs
  • Visual Studio Image Library
    The Visual Studio Image Library contains application images that appear in Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Windows, the Office system and other Microsoft software.
  • Visual Studio 2015 SDK
    The Visual Studio 2015 SDK is no longer offered as a separate download. Instead, Visual Studio Extensibility Tools (SDK and templates) are included as an optional feature in Visual Studio setup.  Learn how to enable the feature.
  • Visual Studio 2013 SDK (October 2013)
    The Visual Studio 2013 SDK includes project templates, tools, tests, and reference assemblies that are required to build extensions for Visual Studio 2013.
  • Visual Studio 2012 SDK (August 2012)
    The Visual Studio 2012 SDK includes project templates, tools, tests, and reference assemblies that are required to build extensions for Visual Studio 2012.
  • Visual Studio 2010 SDK SP1 for Visual Studio 2010 with SP1 (March 2011)
    The Visual Studio 2010 SP1 SDK provides tools and templates for building Visual Studio extensions. By using the Visual Studio 2010 SP1 SDK, you can build your own tool windows, create menu commands, and add extensions to the new Visual Studio editor and other features. Note: Visual Studio 2010 SDK SP1 is a standalone SDK (intended for Visual Studio 2010 SP1), not a service pack for the original Visual Studio 2010 SDK.
  • Visual Studio 2010 SDK for Visual Studio 2010 without SP1 (April 2010)
    The Visual Studio 2010 SDK provides tools and templates for building Visual Studio extensions. By using the Visual Studio 2010 SDK, you can build your own tool windows, create menu commands, and add extensions to the new Visual Studio editor and other features.
  • Visual Studio 2008 SDK Version 1.1 (August 2008)
    The Visual Studio 2008 Software Development Kit (SDK) 1.1 includes tools, documentation, and samples for developers to design, build, test and deploy extensions for Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1. You can also use the Visual Studio 2008 SDK 1.1 to create custom tools environments based on the Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 Shell.
  • Visual Studio 2005 SDK Version 4.0 (April 2007)

VS SDK, packages, add-ins, macros and more…