You may have noticed that every time you install the DevExpress DXCore/CodeRush/Refactor! products they go into a different install folder. For example, I have two versions installed right now: C:\Program Files\DevExpress 2009.3 C:\Program Files\DevExpress 2010.1 The thing is, you can only have one version running at a given time, so it bothered me that there was a new install location every release. I felt like it was left to me to clean up a mess... but it turns out that's not the case! This "new install location for...

I updated my Command Prompt Round-Up to support a VS2010 "Command Prompt Here" function. Right-click a folder and get a VS2010 command prompt. Interested? Go get it.

My CR_CodeTweet plugin for tweeting code from Visual Studio is getting a little publicity on the DevExpress Blog thanks to Mehul Harry, one of their evangelists. There's even a video of how it all works - very cool. I even get a chance to give my buddy Scott Hanselman a hard time at the end of the video. :) The plugin is free and available for download now, so go get it!

In a really large system the build can take a long time. A really long time. Long enough to make continuous integration sort of meaningless. You may not be able to do a whole lot about it, but something to look at is your project's code organization. The compiler and linker have some startup overhead you may be able to get rid of by reducing the number of solutions/projects you have. For example, I threw together a set of three test codebases. Each has 100 (empty) classes, but they're organized in different ways. I then built them a few times and...

Sometimes you have a snippet of code in Visual Studio that you'd like to share over Twitter. You used to have to post the code snippet somewhere (or take a screen shot), then manually tweet the link to that snippet. Not anymore! CR_CodeTweet is a plugin for DXCore that adds a context menu and hotkey that allows you to select code in Visual Studio and automatically post it to CodePaste.NET, then tweet a link to that posted snippet - all without leaving Visual Studio. Select your code and use a simple context menu... ...

A long time ago I posted a little sample showing how to get context menus working with your DXCore plugin. As part of a new plugin I'm working on, I wanted to get an icon to show up in the context menu next to my entry in the menu, something like the icon you see for the Refactor! menu: It's possible, but it's not really documented, so here's what you do. First, make sure you're working with a DevExpress.CodeRush.Menus.IMenuButton. This is the type of thing you can click on and have something happen, as opposed to a DevExpress.CodeRush.Menus.IMenuPopup which is what...

This is sort of a niche thing, so if you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry. However, people who write DXCore plugins (CodeRush/Refactor) sometimes need to do some action based on what context the user is currently in. For example, you may need to enable a function or hide a button or something if the user is in a designer screen. The problem is, it's hard to debug that sort of thing - there's nothing that says "here's the context(s) you're currently in" so when you're writing your plugin you can do the right thing. That's what...

Recently when I was working on my first Firefox extension, I struggled for a while to figure out the best way to work with the code - the script, CSS, etc. - involved with the extension. I like using Visual Studio as my environment for the other projects I'm on, so I thought I'd look around and see if other folks had figured out how to use it while working with Firefox extensions. The closest I got was this article over on DevSource which really talks more about creating the extension's folder structure than it does about how you...

UPDATE: BAH! I was sort of wrong about this. Turns out, as noted in comments, that if you use the solution I outline, then when you hit the key combo, it re-enables the "Track Active Item in Solution Explorer" option that you want disabled. So if you do this, you need to hit the key TWICE - once to select the current item, once to turn the setting back off. If I find a better solution to the problem I'll update this post. When I'm working in Visual Studio, I generally turn off the option to automatically track the curent item...

CodeRush (and Refactor! Pro) from DevExpress are my Visual Studio add-ins of choice. They're based on the "DXCore" engine, which makes writing your own Visual Studio add-ins a breeze. DevExpress has released a free version of their CodeRush tool called "CodeRush Xpress" for users of Visual Studio 2008. It includes 60+ refactorings as well as a host of additional helpful functionality. If you have not treated yourself to trying these amazing tools, this is a great way to give it a run - huge value, no cost to you. Once you fall in love with it, check out other plugins that are available -...

I found that being able to right-click a .sln file and open it as Administrator in Visual Studio is a huge help because I always open solutions by finding the solution file and opening from there, not opening Visual Studio first. Anyway, based on the Elevation Power Toys stuff, I write an "Elevate VS Solution" Power Toy that lets you right-click a .sln file and open it as Administrator. Download the zip file, extract the .inf file, right-click, install. Standard disclaimers ("works on my box!") apply. [Download ElevateVSSolution.zip]

I won't lie - I've been doing most of my development up until now in Windows XP (not by choice) and as I move into Windows Server 2008 territory, there are little gotchas I'm finding as I work as a non-admin user. The one I ran into today is that our build script runs regsvr32 to register and unregister NCover during the build (so different products/projects can use different versions of NCover without having to actually install them). That's only something an admin user can do. The problem comes in when I right-click on a folder and choose "VS.NET 2008 CMD Prompt...

CR_Documentor 2.2.1.0 is a bug fix release that fixes a UI hang that would occasionally happen on certain users' machines. If you're seeing the documentation preview "freeze," this might help you out.

CR_Documentor 2.2.0.0 has been released and includes several bug fixes for rendering issues as well as some fixes/enhancements around the internal preview web server. Check out the version history to see the list of all the resolved issues and added features, then go get it!

Just got word from the folks over at Typemock - if you have an open source project and you want to use Typemock Isolator, they're going to be coming out with a new (free) license type that allows your open source project to use it. Here's the new licensing structure I've seen: Commercial - $449 (same as today) Personal - $200 (will include one year maintenance) Open Source Project - Free 21-Day Trial - Free And, of course, discounts for upgrades, etc., on the paid licenses. This is huge. I've...