Visual Studio Hacks

Master the Visual Studio Command Prompt #77

Chapter 10, Work with Visual Studio Tools

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HACK

From the command prompt, you can access any of the various tools you

commonly need to use from the command prompt. Some of the more com-

mon utilities that you will use while developing applications are:

sn.exe

Used to strongly sign assemblies

[Hack #54]

gacutil.exe

Used to add assemblies to the global assembly cache

xsd.exe

Used to generate strongly typed DataSets from XML schemas

[Hack #49]

ildasm.exe

Used to view the Intermediate Language code generated by your code

[Hack #63]

wsdl.exe

Used to generate web services code based on Web Service Description

Language (WSDL) files

As you can see, a number of useful tools can be quickly accessed through

the Visual Studio command prompt.

Add the Visual Studio Command Prompt as an External Tool

Because of all the helpful utilities available through the VSCP, you might fre-

quently find yourself opening the command prompt and then navigating

your way to your project or solution directory. There is a better way. You

can add the VSCP to Visual Studio’s Tools menu and have it automatically

open to your project or solution directory:

1. Open the External Tools configuration window through Tools

➝ Exter-

nal Tools.

2. Click the Add button.

3. Set the name to something like:

Visual Studio Command Prompt

4. Set the command to:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe

Figure 10-1. Visual Studio .NET ...