Devenv Command Line Switches for VSPackage Development
Visual Studio allows developers to automate tasks from the command line when executing devenv.exe, the file that starts the Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE).
Tasks include:
Deploying applications in predesigned configurations from outside the IDE.
Automatically building projects using preset build settings or debug configurations.
Loading the IDE in specific configurations, all from outside the IDE. In addition, you can customize the IDE upon launch.
Guidelines for Switches
Visual Studio documentation describes the user-level devenv command line switches. For more information, see Devenv Command Line Switches. Devenv also supports additional command-line switches that are useful with VSPackage development, deployment, and debugging.
Command-line switch |
Description |
|---|---|
/noVSIP |
Disables the Visual Studio SDK developer license key on a developer workstation and then starts Visual Studio. When the Visual Studio SDK developer license key is present, all packages are permitted to load, which is necessary for VSPackage development. However, using the /noVSIP switch directs Visual Studio to load as if the Visual Studio SDK developer license key were not present. Consequently, only VSPackages that have a valid package load key (PLK) are allowed to load. Using this switch allows testing VSPackage load key authentication. This switch takes no arguments. |
/safemode |
Launches Visual Studio in safe mode, loading only the default IDE and services. The /safemode switch prevents all third-party VSPackages from loading when Visual Studio starts, thus ensuring stable execution. This switch takes no arguments. |
/resetskippkgs |
Clears all options to skip loading that is added to VSPackages by users who want to avoid loading problematic VSPackages, then starts Visual Studio. The presence of a SkipLoading tag disables the loading of a VSPackage. Clearing the tag re-enables the loading of the VSPackage. This switch takes no arguments. |
/setup |
Forces Visual Studio to merge the resource metadata that describes the menus, toolbars, and command groups from all the available VSPackages. Using the /setup switch does not start Visual Studio. Using /setup switch is usually the last step of the install process. For more information, see Post-install Commands. This switch takes no arguments. |
/rootsuffix |
Starts Visual Studio by using an alternate build registry hive. The following command is run by the shortcut created by the Visual Studio SDK installer: devenv /RootSuffix exp In this case, exp identifies a hive with a particular rootsuffix, indicating an experimental registry hive. The experimental hive allows you to develop and build a VSPackage for Visual Studio alongside your original installation of Visual Studio. The effect of having two side-by-side builds of Visual Studio is to create a separation between the experimental Visual Studio and the standard Visual Studio. This switch can take any rootsuffix that identifies a registry hive that you have created by using VSRegEx.exe. For more information, see Experimental Build. |
/splash |
Shows the Visual Studio splash screen as usual and then shows a message box before showing the main IDE. The message box lets you study the splash screen, to check for a VSPackage product icon, for example. This switch takes no arguments. |