Visual Studio Auto Updater

Visual Studio Auto Updater

Always keep your extensions up to date with the Visual Studio Auto Updater.

This extension allows you to specify which of your Visual Studio extensions you want to automatically update when a new version is released.

How it works

Every time Visual Studio opens, a background process checks for updates to the extensions you have specified for auto updating.

If it finds any, it will silently install them in the background, so that next time you open Visual Studio, you'll have the latest versions of your favorite extensions already installed.

You specify which extensions to auto update in a flyout menu located in the Tools menu.

Not all extensions are listed. Only the ones that can be auto updated, which excludes

1. Extensions installed by MSIs.
2. Extensions that require admin permissions to update.
3. Extensions that are shipped as part of Visual Studio.

Some extensions are enabled for automatic updates by default. These extensions are typically smaller extensions that are safe to update. You can always turn off automatic updating of those extensions, but they have been classified as "safe" to update.

For instance, Web Essentials is not on the list because there are people that prefer earlier versions over the latest.

See the list of default auto-updatable extensions.