Hack 29. Add Support for Nonstandard File Extensions
Use the VSTweak power toy to tell Visual Studio
how to handle file types that aren't supported by
default.
Creating custom
file extensions allows you to specify your own file extensions that
will be treated like another already existing file type in Visual
Studio. This is very useful if you have created a custom file type
for your application but want Visual Studio to treat it like a
regular file.
To create and manage custom file extensions, you can use a power toy
called VSTweak. The VSTweak power toy is one of the more useful power
toys for Visual Studio and is the subject of a number of different
hacks in this book. The VSTweak power toy can be downloaded at
http://workspaces.gotdotnet.com/vstweak.
Once you have installed and launched VSTweak, click on the File
Extensions Manager tab, shown in Figure 4-16.
To add a new custom extension, you simply need to enter the custom
extension in the Define Extension text box, select what kind of file
this extension should be treated as in the Treat As drop-down, and
then click the Add button shown in Figure 4-16. The
extension .cxm will be added to Visual Studio
and treated like an .xml file.
You can also remove custom extensions by selecting the extension from
the drop-down and clicking the Delete button. Changes made to custom
extensions are made for all users of your
machine, not just you.
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To edit custom file extensions, you must be logged in as
administrator on your machine, or you must launch the VSTweak
application by right-clicking on it and choosing Run As, then log in
using an administrator account.
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Managing custom file extensions is very useful, especially when
creating custom file types or when hacking Visual Studio to do
something it was never intended to do (such as adding the ability to
edit .php files [Hack #12] ).
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