How to copy a file to an arbitrary location when installing a VSIX project?

Question

I am developing a Visual Studio 2010 extension (VSIX project) to add some extra properties to the entities in the Entity Framework designer. In addition to registering the appropriate classes for MEF discovery, I would like a T4 include file to be copied to the %ProgramFiles%\ Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\Entity Framework Tools\Templates\Includes folder when the extension is installed, but I don't know how to do it and the VSIX properties page does not seem to show any option for this.

So my question is: is there any way to have a given file being copied to a given location when a VSIX project is installed?

Answer 1

Using VSIX only, no, there is not.

Whole contents of VSIX package are during installation simply unzipped into your local extensions directory - and that's END regarding file installations.

Whatever you want to copy anywhere, you must deal with it outside of the VSIX installer. For example - use different installer. Or, for another example, upon first-run of your plugin, somewhere in package.Initialize(), check whether the files in question exist in right places, and if not - copy them there.

Of course, if you want to write to the ProgramFiles directory, you have another barrier in front of you: the UAC protection. To write there, you will need an another executable that your plugin will run in elevation (and asking the user for permission during that, etc) and it only it will be able to copy the files there. Well, of course, unless you happily assume that everyone always run their VisualStudios "as administrator" and simply ignore the UAC and your users' tears.