How to: Deactivate and Remove an Add-In
When you finish using an add-in, you can unload it from Visual Studio by clearing the box next to its name in Add-in Manager. You may decide to remove the add-in permanently so that it no longer is displayed in Add-in Manager, and its command is no longer displayed on the Tools menu or the Visual Studio toolbar. The following steps show how to do this.
Note
Your computer might show different names or locations for some of the Visual Studio user interface elements in the following instructions. The Visual Studio edition that you have and the settings that you use determine these elements. For more information, see Visual Studio Settings.
To remove an add-in from the integrated development environment (IDE)
Delete the .addin XML registration file for the add-in that you want to remove.
The default location is ..\Users\username\My Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Addins\.
At a Visual Studio command prompt, type **devenv /resetaddin Namespace.**ClassName, where Namespace is the name of your add-in project and Classname is its class name, for example, devenv /resetaddin MyAddin1.Connect.
Compiling the Code
When the IDE starts, the add-in is deleted, together with any commands or toolbar buttons that are associated with it. However, to completely remove the add-in, you must manually delete all project files associated with it, for example, its DLL and solution file, because the /resetaddin switch only removes the add-in from the Visual Studio UI. The default location is ..\Users\username\My Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Projects\.