Chris Bayles
Chris Bayles

Reputation: 405

How to remove ApexSQL menus from Visual Studio?

I installed the free version of ApexSQL which is awesome in SSMS, but I really don't want all those menus in Visual Studio. I went to add-in manager and unchecked them, but the Startup column is checked and disabled so every time I restart Visual Studio they come back.

Is it possible to permanently remove the ApexSQL menus from Visual Studio?

Upvotes: 10

Views: 5119

Answers (4)

Saliya Wicky
Saliya Wicky

Reputation: 23

If you are using SSMS v18.0 then you can disable the apex features in following way. SSMS details window

You can find the ApexSQL.Complete.Addin.SSMS18.pkgdef file from following path.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 18\Common7\IDE\Extensions\ApexSQL Complete

Then open this file in Notepad++ Administrator mode and comment the content.

If you need further reading follow this link. https://knowledgebase.apexsql.com/remove-apexsql-tools-sql-server-management-studio/

Upvotes: 0

ltree
ltree

Reputation: 53

For Visual Studio 2010 on Windows 7, I attempted @Chris Bayles suggestion and do not see ApexSql addins under Tools->Add-in Manager.

I followed @Jerome2606's pointer to https://knowledgebase.apexsql.com/remove-add-ins-just-visual-studio-retaining-sql-server-management-studio/ and it worked for me, but only when I removed the parent ApexSQL folder as well.

Summary of what is required to do: Remove folder

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\ApexSQL

Depending on the version of Visual Studio, the version number in the default installation location will be different:

Product name    Version number
Visual Studio 2010  Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0
Visual Studio 2012  Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0
Visual Studio 2013  Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0
Visual Studio 2015  Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0

Select and delete the ApexSQL folder and its contents.

Open Command Prompt as an administrator, then run

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" /setup

Please note the command is different for Visual Studio 2012, 2013, and 2015.

Upvotes: 1

Milica Medic Kiralj
Milica Medic Kiralj

Reputation: 3740

The issue of crowding menus is resolved in latest releases, now all ApexSQL add-ins are under the main ApexSQL menu as sub-menus. They look like this now:

enter image description here

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If you don't need ApexSQL add-ins in VS or SSMS you can simply choose not to integrate them with VS or SSMS during the installation, just check out SSMS ot VS version in which you want the add-ins integrated

enter image description here

Note: To get this dialog in which you can check the wanted integration you need to use individual installers not the main one. You can find all individual installers on this link

Disclaimer: I work for ApexSQL as a Support Engineer

Upvotes: 3

Chris Bayles
Chris Bayles

Reputation: 405

If you have ApexSql installed and you don't want those pesky menus in Visual Studio do 2 things.

  1. In Visual Studio, go to Tools > Add-in Manager and uncheck the ApexSql addins. Close Visual Studio.
  2. In Windows 7, there's a hidden folder C:\ProgramData. In Windows Explorer go to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\MSEnvShared\AddIns folder. Edit each of the *.MsvsLoader.Addin files and set <LoadBehavior> to 0. If you can't save the files directly, you'll have to save the files to a different location (desktop maybe) and then copy them back into C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\MSEnvShared\AddIns because there's some Admin privilege required.

Now when you restart VS those ApexSQL menus should be gone

Upvotes: 13

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