Visual Studio Hacks

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Chapter 4, Customizing Visual Studio

#29 Add Support for Nonstandard File Extensions

HACK

HACK

#29

Add Support for Nonstandard File ExtensionsHack #29

Use the VSTweak power toy to tell Visual Studio how to handle file types that

aren’t supported by default.

Creating custom file extensions allows you to specify your own file exten-

sions that will be treated like another already existing file type in Visual Stu-

dio. This is very useful if you have created a custom file type for your

application but want Visual Studio to treat it like a regular file.

To create and manage custom file extensions, you can use a power toy called

VSTweak. The VSTweak power toy is one of the more useful power toys for

Visual Studio and is the subject of a number of different hacks in this book.

The VSTweak power toy can be downloaded at http://workspaces.gotdotnet.

com/vstweak.

Once you have installed and launched VSTweak, click on the File Exten-

sions Manager tab, shown in Figure 4-16.

To add a new custom extension, you simply need to enter the custom exten-

sion in the Define Extension text box, select what kind of file this extension

should be treated as in the Treat As drop-down, and then click the Add

Figure 4-16. File Extensions Manager