Edit

Status bar

Show non-critical notifications and progress indicators in the Visual Studio status bar.

Note

This guide uses the VisualStudio.Extensibility SDK. See Choose the right extensibility model for model comparison.

Tip

No standalone status bar sample is available. For a full extension example, see SimpleRemoteCommandSample ↗.

Related concepts: Contributions and configurations — how extensions interact with the Visual Studio shell

Understand the example

Show progress in the status bar

using var reporter = await this.Extensibility.Shell().StartProgressReportingAsync(
    "Analyzing files...",
    new ProgressReporterOptions(isWorkCancellable: true),
    cancellationToken);

for (int i = 0; i < fileCount; i++)
{
    await AnalyzeFileAsync(files[i], cancellationToken);
    reporter.Report(new ProgressStatus((int)(((i + 1) / (double)fileCount) * 100)));
}

Tips

✅ DO

  • Use status bar for non-critical background information only
  • Report progress with both current and total steps for a visible progress bar
  • Keep status text short — the status bar has limited space

❌ DON'T

  • Don't use the status bar for critical notifications (users may not see it)
  • Don't write high-frequency updates — throttle to avoid UI flicker
  • Don't assume your text persists — any other write replaces it immediately

🔧 Troubleshooting

Symptom Fix
Text disappears immediately Another extension or VS overwrote it; status bar is not persistent
Progress bar not visible Ensure percentage is between 0 and 100 in ProgressStatus
Nothing appears Verify command is executing and cancellation token is valid

Next steps

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