vsix opens visual studio

Question

I seem to have got my system into a bit of a pickle with respect to Visual Studio extensions. Normally I would use Nuget.

When an extension is not on Nuget, I'd download the vsix file and double-click on it to start the installation process. But now, when I double-click on the vsix file, it opens it in the Visual Studio text editor, treating it as a file to be edited, rather than executing it as a file to be executed.

Anyone know how I can restore the correct, intended behaviour?

Thanks

Answer 1

First way: if you open regedit and see keys under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes.vsix, just delete that entire key. That should allow the global registrations in HKLM to take effect again.

Otherwise, right click on the file, Open With, and choose "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSEnv\VSLauncher.exe".