VisualStudio - How to unattended install a 3rd party DLL control?

Question

I'm trying to make a deployment of vs2012,

The extensions are too easy to install because they are in VSIX format so i can call them silently,

The question is how can I install a DLL control in my VS without opening the "choose toolbox items..." menu?

It's posibbly?

Maybe exist a special folder like the snippets folder where you put some snippets and VS automatically recognices the new added snippets?

Or maybe i need to create a VSIX installer for each of my 3rd party DLL controls? Then someone can give me a little info about that?

Thankyou for read

UPDATE: i get this error trying the custom build of toolbox manager:

PD: i'm using win 64 bit, and i've tryed at least all the command combinations for this tool.

Answer 1

I wrote a tutorial article on toolbox control installation in Visual Studio, including VS2012:

Visual Studio Toolbox Control Integration

It contains several approaches and compares them so you can choose the one most suitable to you.

Answer 2

Not the best solution but... My alternative solution for people who can't run toolbox.exe for VS2012:

PS: This bat file is based on another bat but I've lost the reference link for credits, mine have error control and is more customizable.

@Echo OFF
Title Control Installer v1.0

REM By Elektro H@cker  
REM This tool performs installation of new controls for VisualStudio.


REM Syntax:
:: Control_Installer.cmd "Name of dll" "Name of tab" "Controls folder (THIS IS OPTIONAL)" "DEVENV.exe folder (THIS IS OPTIONAL)"


Set "DLLFILE=%~1"
Set "TABNAME=%~2"
IF "%~3" EQU "" (SET "CONTROLSFOLDER=%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Controls") ELSE (SET "CONTROLSFOLDER=%~3")
IF "%~4" EQU "" (SET "VSFOLDER=%VS110COMNTOOLS%\..\IDE\")                                  ELSE (SET "VSFOLDER=%~4")


IF NOT EXIST "%DLLFILE%"              (Echo: An error occurred: Can't find the controls file "%DLLFILE%". & Exit /B 1)
IF NOT EXIST "%CONTROLSFOLDER%"       (Echo: An error occurred: Can't find the controls folder "%ControlsFolder%". & Exit /B 1)
IF NOT EXIST "%VSFOLDER%\devenv.exe"  (Echo: An error occurred: Can't find the VisualStudio "devenv.exe" in "%VSFOLDER%". & Exit /B 1)
IF "%TABNAME%" EQU ""                 (Echo: An error occurred: Can't crate the tab "%TABNAME%". & Exit /B 1)


MKDIR "%ControlsFolder%\%TABNAME%"                2>NUL
Copy /Y "%DLLFILE%" "%ControlsFolder%\%TABNAME%\" 1>NUL
Start /B /D "%VSFOLDER%" devenv.exe /command Tools.InstallCommunityControls && Exit /B 0 || (Exit /B 1)

Answer 3

Here is my update of @Libor work

I've translated all the code to VB.NET, added compatibility with VS2013, experimental compatibility with WPF controls.

Credits for the original author above.

Here is more info:

www.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fforo.elhacker.net%2Fnet%2Fsource_extended_dte_toolbox_control_installer-t406027.0.html%3Bmsg1909162%23msg1909162

Here is the source:

http://elektrostudios.tk/Extended%20DTE%20Toolbox%20Control%20Installer.zip