SDK-Style Support for Extension Projects in Visual Studio

Emiliano Montesdeoca — Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

SDK-Style support for VSSDK-based extension projects is now officially in Visual Studio 18.5 — classic VSIX extension projects can ditch the old MPF-style .csproj format.

What changes in the project file

The biggest visible change is how much smaller the project file gets. A typical VSSDK extension now looks like this:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
 <PropertyGroup>
 <TargetFramework>net472</TargetFramework>
 <VSSDKBuildToolsAutoSetup>true</VSSDKBuildToolsAutoSetup>
 <VsixDeployOnDebug>true</VsixDeployOnDebug>
 <GeneratePkgDefFile>true</GeneratePkgDefFile>
 </PropertyGroup>
 <ItemGroup><ProjectCapability Include="CreateVsixContainer" /></ItemGroup>
 <ItemGroup>
 <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.SDK" Version="17.14.40265" ExcludeAssets="runtime" />
 <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.VSSDK.BuildTools" Version="18.5.38461" />
 </ItemGroup>
</Project>

VSSDKBuildToolsAutoSetup=true applies sensible defaults: CreateVsixContainer=true and legacy DeployExtension=false. That single property replaces a significant chunk of what previously had to be spelled out explicitly.

Build time improvements

Fast Up-To-Date Check and incremental build support are included. For large solutions with small changes, this translates to up to 75% build time reduction — meaningful if you’re iterating on an extension inside a large host solution.

New projects vs existing

New extension projects created in 18.5 automatically use SDK-style. Existing MPF-style extensions keep working — migration is opt-in. One thing to watch during migration: add <UseWpf>true</UseWpf> if your extension uses XAML. You also need to mark the extension as deployable in your .sln or .slnx file.

The vsixmanifest designer is replaced by the XML editor as the default — right-click → Open With if you want the old designer back.

Agentic migration path

The Modernize agent in vs-agent-plugins can automate the migration. Several real extensions have already been converted this way: Mads Kristensen’s Smart Screen, Command Explorer, Postfix Templates, and Whitespace Visualizer.

Worth noting

VisualStudio.Extensibility (the newer extensibility framework) already supported SDK-style. This update brings parity to the classic VSSDK path. The only requirement is the Visual Studio extension development workload.

Full details in the official post.

Bookmark Studio Brings Slot-Based Navigation and Sharing to Visual Studio Bookmarks

Emiliano Montesdeoca — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Bookmarks in Visual Studio have always been… fine. You set one, you navigate to the next, you forget which bookmark is which. They work, but they’ve never been the kind of feature you’d call powerful.

Mads Kristensen just released Bookmark Studio, an experimental extension that fills in exactly the gaps you’ve probably run into if you use bookmarks regularly.

The core addition: bookmarks can now be assigned to slots 1–9 and jumped to directly with Alt+Shift+1 through Alt+Shift+9. New bookmarks automatically get the next available slot, so in most cases, fast navigation works without any setup.

This sounds simple, but it changes bookmarks from “I have some bookmarks somewhere” to “Slot 3 is my API controller, Slot 5 is the service layer, Slot 7 is the test.” That kind of spatial memory makes navigation nearly instant during focused work sessions.

The Bookmark Manager

A new tool window shows all your bookmarks in one place with filtering by name, file, location, color, or slot. Double-click or keyboard-navigate to jump to any bookmark.

If you’ve ever had more than five or six bookmarks and lost track of which was which, this alone is worth installing the extension.

Organization with labels, colors, and folders

Bookmarks can optionally have labels, colors, and be grouped into folders. None of it is required — your current bookmark workflow keeps working. But when you’re debugging a complex issue or exploring an unfamiliar codebase, being able to color-code and label your bookmarks adds useful context.

All metadata is stored per solution, so your bookmark organization persists across sessions.

This is the feature I didn’t know I wanted. Bookmark Studio lets you export bookmarks as plain text, Markdown, or CSV. That means you can:

Include bookmark paths in pull request descriptions
Share investigation breadcrumbs with teammates
Move bookmark sets between repos or branches

Bookmarks stop being a solo navigation tool and start being a way to communicate “here’s the path through this code.”

Bookmarks that track code movement

Bookmark Studio tracks bookmarks relative to the text they’re anchored to, so they don’t drift to wrong lines as you edit. If you’ve ever set bookmarks during a debugging session and had them all point to the wrong lines after a refactor — this fixes that.

Wrapping up

Bookmark Studio doesn’t reinvent anything. It takes a feature that’s been “good enough” for years and makes it genuinely useful for focused development. Slot navigation, the Bookmark Manager, and export capabilities are the highlights.

Grab it from the Visual Studio Marketplace and give it a try.

Extensions | The .NET Blog

SDK-Style Support for Extension Projects in Visual Studio

What changes in the project file

Build time improvements

New projects vs existing

Agentic migration path

Worth noting

Bookmark Studio Brings Slot-Based Navigation and Sharing to Visual Studio Bookmarks

Slot-based navigation

The Bookmark Manager

Organization with labels, colors, and folders

Bookmarks that track code movement

Wrapping up

Extensions | The .NET Blog

SDK-Style Support for Extension Projects in Visual Studio

What changes in the project file

Build time improvements

New projects vs existing

Agentic migration path

Worth noting

Bookmark Studio Brings Slot-Based Navigation and Sharing to Visual Studio Bookmarks

Slot-based navigation

The Bookmark Manager

Organization with labels, colors, and folders

Export and share

Bookmarks that track code movement

Wrapping up