In my last entry I mentioned that I was investigating to use XML registration (.AddIn File) with my MZ-Tools add-in. Finally I was unable because it seems that Visual Studio 2005/2008 managed add-ins using XML registration don’t support unmanaged satellite DLLs (created with C++) for custom pictures for commands. The .AddIn file doesn’t support the SatelliteDllName and SatelliteDllPath tags whose equivalent entries in the Windows registry are used for addins using COM registration. For add-ins using XML registration, it seems that you need managed satellite DLLs (.resx file that generates a .resources file) that don’t need XML tags to be located. Of course this complicates the scenario if your add-in needs to support VS.NET 2002/2003 with the same code base, because you need an unmanaged satellite DLL for VS.NET 2002/2003 and a managed satellite DLL for VS 2005/2008. So, I will keep using the COM registration and unmanaged satellite DLLs for all versions.

I don’t understand this restriction, since COM/XML registration has nothing to do with satellite DLLs. The .AddIn file could have happily supported the SatelliteDllName/SatelliteDllPath tags for unmanaged satellite DLLs to ease backwards compatibility, but now it is too late and the damage is done.

MSDN: Walkthrough: Creating Managed Satellite DLLs
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e9zazcx5.aspx

Huizhong Long’s WebLog: Displaying custom bitmap for VS add-in command button from satellite DLL
http://blogs.msdn.com/hlong/archive/2005/09/27/474522.aspx

All that said, I really hate satellite DLLs (managed or unmanaged), they should be totally unnecessary to provide custom pictures, and I would like to get rid of them: