By Paul Krill
Microsoft now is including its updated Extension Manager for Visual Studio as an on-by-default preview, beginning with Visual Studio 17.10.
The “modern” Extension Manager provides enough detailed information about available extensions that developers will no longer have to leave Visual Studio when searching for extensions, Microsoft said in a blog post on May 29.
Visual Studio 17.10 brings the updated Extension Manager to all users. It was available previously as an optional preview.
The Extension Manager has been rebuilt to spotlight important content when searching for extensions, and now includes a large pane for viewing detailed descriptions. The left sidebar lets users choose between primary views, which include browsing the Visual Studio Marketplace for new extensions, viewing and managing installed extensions, discovering and installing updates to extensions, and installing extensions for which developers have roaming enabled. Users can click the filter icon to the right of the search box to show menus for category and subcategory.
Users can return to the previous Extension Manager by disabling the preview feature. This can be done by navigating to Tools > Manage Preview Features and unchecking the box for the feature called Extension Manager UI Refresh. To re-enable the new Extension Manager, check the box for the preview feature and restart the IDE. Users can share feedback on the Extension Manager by accessing the Developer Community web page.
