Managing External Tools
Note
This article applies to Visual Studio 2015. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here
You can call external tools from inside Visual Studio. A few default tools are available from the Tools menu, but you can add other executables of your own.
Tools Available on the Visual Studio Tools Menu
You can call the following tools from the Tools menu in Visual Studio. You can also call them by name from the Quick Launch window. For example, to call GuidGen.exe, type Create GUID.
Create GUID: generates a GUID.
Error Lookup: gets an error message from the value entered. For more information, see ERRLOOK Reference.
ATL/MFC Trace Tool: shows debug trace messages in the ATL and MFC sources.
PreEmptive Protection - Dotfuscator: Protects .NET programs against reverse engineering.
SPY++: Displays processes, threads, windows, and window messages graphically.
WCF Service Configuration Editor: Allows you to create and modify configuration settings for WCF services.
Warning
You may see a different list of external tools, depending on which Visual Studio edition you have installed and the settings profile you have applied. For more information, see Customizing Development Settings in Visual Studio.
Adding New Tools
You can add an external tool to the Tools menu. Open the External Tools dialog box and click Add, then fill in the information. For example, the following entry causes Windows Explorer to open at the directory of the file you currently have open in Visual Studio:
Title: Open File Location
Command: explorer.exe
Arguments: /root, "$(ItemDir)"
Arguments for external tools
The following arguments are Visual Studio variables that are assigned when you launch an external tool. Links to external tools such as Notepad or Spy++ can be listed on the Tools menu using the External Tools dialog box.
Note
The IDE status bar displays the Current Line and Current Column variables to indicate where the insertion point is located in the active Code Editor. The Current Text variable returns the text or code selected at that location.
| Name | Argument | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Item Path | $(ItemPath) | The complete file name of the current file (drive + path + file name). |
| Item Directory | $(ItemDir) | The directory of the current file (drive + path). |
| Item File Name | $(ItemFilename) | The file name of the current file (file name). |
| Item Extension | $(ItemExt) | The file name extension of the current file. |
| Current Line | $(CurLine) | The current line position of the cursor in the code window. |
| Current Column | $(CurCol) | The current column position of the cursor in the code window. |
| Current Text | $(CurText) | The selected text. |
| Target Path | $(TargetPath) | The complete file name of the item to be built (drive + path + file name). |
| Target Directory | $(TargetDir) | The directory of the item to be built. |
| Target Name | $(TargetName) | The file name of the item to be built. |
| Target Extension | $(TargetExt) | The file name extension of the item to be built. |
| Binary Directory | $(BinDir) | The final location of the binary that is being built (defined as drive + path). For example:\...\My Documents\Visual Studio <Version>\<ProjectName>\bin\debug |
| Project Directory | $(ProjDir) | The directory of the current project (drive + path). |
| Project file name | $(ProjFileName) | The file name of the current project (drive + path + file name). |
| Solution Directory | $(SolutionDir) | The directory of the current solution (drive + path). |
| Solution file name | $(SolutionFileName) | The file name of the current solution (drive + path + file name). |