Visual Studio 2015 launched with numerous new features that reduces the time spent developing and reviewing software. No doubt Visual Studio is currently the best IDE, but still we require third-party software and extensions to do our lazy work. Yes, these plugins help us to complete our job quickly and simply with just a few mouse clicks. I will try to list a few of those extensions or tools. This list can vary with others.
- Visual Studio Gallery tools: Repository or gallery with tools, controls, extensions and so on. To help you get the most from Studio. You can download most of the following list from this gallery.
- NuGet Package Manager: Collection of tools that help to automate the process of downloading, installing, configuring, removing packages from a Visual Studio Project.
- MSIL Dissemblers: There are few more dissemblers to try, like .Net Reflector, JustDecompile and so on.
- Visual Studio Achievement Extension for Visual Studio 2010/2012: This is fun, anyone can use it. Just download, register and link to your Visual Studio and get various achievements based on your activity.
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- Image Optimizer: Hot stuff, an extension that helps to optimizes various images using a project without quality loss. Thanks to Mads Kristensen, the Program Manager on the Web Platforms & Tools team at Microsoft who is working on the web developer experiences of Visual Studio.
- GhostDoc: Extension used to automatically generate XML documentation comments for methods and properties based on their type, parameters and so on. Visual Studio already has this feature but requires manual work.
- SQL Formatter, SQL Beautifier: Beautify your SQL, procedures, functions and so on. It's a code formatting tool that can be uses with SSME.
- JScript Editor Extensions or JSEnhancements: Extensions have some useful features for JavaScript and CSS.
- LINQPad and Visualizer: LINQPad lets you interactively query databases in a modern query language.
- Fiddler: a HTTP debugging proxy server that works seamlessly across most platforms and browsers that log all incoming and outgoing traffic.
- TFS Compare, Code Compare, Beyond Compare: To compare files, folder, data, registry and so on. These tools are very helpful.
- Resharper: Currently the best .Net productivity tool. It automates most of what can be automated in your coding routines. It finds compiler errors, runtime errors, redundancies, code smells and possible improvements right as you type, suggesting intelligent corrections for them. The best tool recommended for developers and code reviewers. Developers can easily learn and polish their best coding abilities.
- Atomiq: Ok, this is something that is not much around with developers, but still they should use it. Mostly used by Architects, code reviewers, Quality team and so on. Atomiq Code Similarity Finder - designed by and for developers to make it easy to find and eliminate duplicate code.
- PowerShell tools for VS2013: a collection of software utilities is an ever-growing assemblage of useful tools for system administrators, developers. Some tools like PowerGUI, PrimalScript and so on.
- Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Power Tools: a set of enhancements, tools and command-line utilities that increase the productivity of Team Foundation Server scenarios.
- TFS Source Control Explorer Extensions: a powerful extension with features like Drag & Drop support, Move and Branch, destroy work item and so on.
These are a few, others might be in another list. Share here.