| title | Installing the Visual Studio SDK |
|---|---|
| description | Explore installation options for the Visual Studio Software Development Kit, including during Visual Studio installation. |
| ms.date | 02/02/2024 |
| ms.topic | overview |
| author | tinaschrepfer |
| ms.author | tinali |
| ms.subservice | extensibility-integration |
The Visual Studio SDK (Software Development Kit) is an optional feature in Visual Studio setup. You can also install the VSSDK later on.
To include the VSSDK in your Visual Studio installation, install the Visual Studio extension development workload under Other Toolsets. This workload will install the Visual Studio SDK and the necessary prerequisites. You can further tune the installation by selecting or unselecting components from the Summary view.
To install the Visual Studio SDK after completing your Visual Studio installation, rerun the Visual Studio installer and select the Visual Studio extension development workload.
::: moniker range="visualstudio" If you open a solution with an extensibility project without first installing the VSSDK, the relevant packages will be installed. ::: moniker-end
::: moniker range="vs-2022" If you open a solution with an extensibility project without first installing the VSSDK, you'll be prompted by an Install Missing Feature dialog to install the Visual Studio extension development workload:
:::image type="content" source="media/vs-2022/install-extension-development.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing the Visual Studio dialog to Install extension development workload."::: ::: moniker-end
As with any Visual Studio workload or component, you can also install the Visual Studio extension development workload (ID: Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.VisualStudioExtension) from the command line. See Use command-line parameters to install Visual Studio for details on the appropriate command-line switches and general instructions on determining workload or component identifiers.