Visual studio does not install .vsix files

Question

I've both VS 2012 and VS 2013 installed on my computer. The problem is that when I download an VSIX-File and open it with the Visual Studio version selector the file gets opened by VS but instead of installing it. VS opens the file as if it was an unknown binary format.

The attached image shows how VSIX-files are opened (happens with every file ... this is just an example):

Answer 1

I faced the same issue. Just use the VSIXInstaller to install the extension.

You can open "Developer Command Prompt for VS2012" tool in Start -> Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 -> Visual Studio Tools. On the console, run the below command:

VSIXInstaller <path to vsix file>

Answer 2

1. Open "Developer Command Prompt for VS2015" as administrator.
2. Type VSIXInstaller.exe vsixFilePath

Note that this way wouldn't work with me and gives me "Path to vsix file 'G:\Roslyn' is invaild or you don't have required access permissions". To solve this you need to put the path in a double quote like this:

 VSIXInstaller.exe "G:\Roslyn SDK.vsix"

Answer 3

I got into a weird situation where in a fresh install of W10 and VS2015 Community, the Player Framework vsix installation won't start, either by dbl click or from command prompt using VSIxInstaller.exe, and would show no message at all. The solution was to open an elevated command prompt (run Developer Command Prompt for VS2015 as administrator) and then type VSIXInstaller.exe worked.