Register file name extensions for side-by-side deployments

Applies to: Visual Studio Visual Studio for Mac

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

For VSPackages deployed in a side-by-side environment, you must register file name extensions to associate the files with the correct version of Visual Studio. Unless you use a version-specific file name extension, registration enables users to open your project and project item files in the appropriate version of Visual Studio.

In this section

• About file name extensions Discusses how file name extensions are registered.

• Specify file handlers for file name extensions Provides information about how to register the applications that can open, edit, and so on, a particular file name extension.

• Register verbs for file name extensions Discusses how to register verbs.

• Manage side-by-side file associations Discusses how to handle side-by-side installations in which a particular version of Visual Studio should be invoked to open a file.

Related sections

• Support multiple versions of Visual Studio Describes issues related to multiple versions of Visual Studio and your VSPackage during development and deployment to end users.