If I want to use an extension run with a different account in Visual Studio 2019, do I really need to download and install it all over again?

Question

I downloaded and installed an extension to my copy of VS 2019, but then found that I needed to use a different user account to access a server somewhere...so I started it with:

runas /user:thedomain\theuser /netonly "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"

And when my window displayed I found my extension was no longer listed in the list of the installed.

And so I had to re-download/install all 300+ MBs of it again.

This sounds a bit mad. What if I have 100+ different accounts that I need to connect with? Do I need 30GBs of space for this single plugin for each of those accounts? And do I have to install it manually each time?

See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21174656/how-can-i-install-an-extension-so-that-all-users-can-access-it — Sergey Vlasov, Dec 03 '19 at 03:46
@leeand00 Hi friend, any update for this issue? Can Sergey's or Perry's answer helps to resolve your issue? If it still blocks you, feel free to let us know:) — LoLance, Dec 04 '19 at 01:42
@PerryQian-MSFT well I went back and ran it again as admin account, and this the the extensions were just there; I didn’t have to re-install them like I did before. — leeand00, Dec 06 '19 at 11:33

Mr Qian · Answer 1 · 2019-12-09T03:32:35.910

What if I have 100+ different accounts that I need to connect with? Do I need 30GBs of space for this single plugin for each of those accounts? And do I have to install it manually each time?

As far as l know, VS extensions are per-user and are installed in the %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\<Visual Studio version>\Extensions\ folder.

A few extensions are administrative extensions and are installed in the <Visual Studio>installation folder>\Common7\IDE\Extensions\ folder. See here. So when you change an account for Windows, extensions from your previous account will not be loaded in the current Visual Studio.

However, VSIXInstaller.exe has a switch that installs extensions for all users on the current system just as Sergey said and thanks for him. You no longer have to re-download the extensions for each account.

Solution

1.First, you should download the extension which you need from the VS Marketplace website

2.Call the VSIXInstaller.exe in cmd which exists in the path C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\Common7\IDE in my side.Then run this command below:

VSIXInstaller.exe /admin  xxxx.vsix(object name)

It will install the extension into C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\Common7\IDE\Extensions(like a public extension library) so that all users can access to it.

Edit:

If you have installed them before, you did not have to reinstall them again. Just run VS as Administrator and then you can access them again.

Hope it could help you:)

If I want to use an extension run with a different account in Visual Studio 2019, do I really need to download and install it all over again?

1 Answers1