Don’t you like when you find two bugs in a row? Apart from this other bug, I also found this one using the add-in wizard of Visual Studio, and again the curious part is that it worked in Visual Studio 2005, but was broken in Visual Studio 2008 and the bug persists.

I have reported to Microsoft Connect:

Error occurred in add-in wizard if add-in project created inside solution folder:
https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/789324/error-ocurred-in-add-in-wizard-if-add-in-project-created-inside-solution-folder

and I have documented in the MZ-Tools Series articles:

BUG: Error occurred in add-in wizard if add-in project created inside solution folder:
http://www.mztools.com/articles/2013/MZ2013004.aspx

I have created tons of add-ins in the last years using the add-in wizard of Visual Studio, and the other day I wanted to use a project name with a ‘.’ dot character in the name. I noticed this bug that I have reported to Microsoft Connect:

Checkbox to create CommandBar disabled in add-in wizard if name contains “.”
https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/789323/checkbox-to-create-commandbar-disabled-in-add-in-wizard-if-name-contains

and I have documented in the MZ-Tools Series articles:

BUG: Checkbox to create CommandBar disabled in add-in wizard if name contains ‘.’
http://www.mztools.com/articles/2013/MZ2013003.aspx

The curious part is that it worked in Visual Studio 2005, but was broken in Visual Studio 2008 and the bug persists.

I wrote some years ago HOWTO: Open the Web Browser and navigate to a page from a Visual Studio add-in or macro (http://www.mztools.com/articles/2008/MZ2008012.aspx). The other day someone asked in the MSDN VSX forum how to show an .aspx page in the browser programmatically, which is easy if you can get the full browse URL of the .aspx page. It happens that the ProjectItem class of Web Site projects and Web Application projects has different ways of getting / composing the browse URL, so I have written an article with sample code about this:

HOWTO: Get the full browse URL of an .aspx page
http://www.mztools.com/articles/2013/MZ2013002.aspx

Many of the MZ-Tools Articles that I have written in the last years seemed a bit outdated because each one has a header like this:

Where the date and the list of Visual Studio versions would reflect the moment in time when I wrote them.

I have reviewed all them (200+) and many are now updated to reflect that they apply until the last Visual Studio 2012 version when that is the case:

So, most HOWTO articles are now current. The exceptions are those articles which are BUG or PRB (issue), that I haven’t bothered to check if they are still present.

My first small article this year is to document this bug of Visual Studio 2005, 2008, 2010 and 2012:

BUG: DTE.ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow does not return the active document window if toolwindow active
http://www.mztools.com/articles/2013/MZ2013001.aspx

Which I have just reported to Microsoft Connect:

Document.ActiveWindow does not return always the active window
https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/781522/document-activewindow-does-not-return-always-the-active-window

and that is a variation of a bug that I reported for VS.NET 2002/2003 and that I thought it was definitely fixed in VS 2005 (the relevant factor is that it still fails if a toolwindow is active):

BUG: Document.ActiveWindow does not return always the active window in Visual Studio .NET 2002/2003
http://www.mztools.com/articles/2004/MZ2004013.aspx

My new article in the MZ-Tools Articles Series is about Visual Studio extension setups (a digression from the “theming extensions” subject of my last articles). I learn something new very often from questions in the MSDN Visual Studio Extensibility (VSX) Forum, when I have to investigate something before providing an answer.

A few days ago a question led me to learn something new that I have documented here:

HOWTO: Detect Visual Studio requirements for MSI-based extensions setups.
http://www.mztools.com/Articles/2012/MZ2012029.aspx

While writing that article I noticed that I had to update a bit these old ones:

HOWTO: Detect installed Visual Studio editions, packages or service packs
http://www.mztools.com/Articles/2008/MZ2008003.aspx

HOWTO: Detect if Visual Studio .NET is installed in a Visual Studio Setup package for an add-in
http://www.mztools.com/Articles/2006/MZ2006001.aspx