Table of Contents

Configuring Microsoft Visual Studio

Associating XML files with Microsoft Visual Studio

It is recommended to associate XML files with Microsoft Visual Studio. That way, when you double-click a protocol XML file or Automation script XML file in Windows Explorer, it will automatically be opened in Microsoft Visual Studio.

  1. Go to Control Panel > Default Programs > Set Associations.
  2. In the list of extensions, double-click ".xml".
  3. In the Open With dialog box, select "Microsoft Visual Studio", and click OK.

Configuring the default package management format

To be able to work with NuGet packages, you have to change the default package management format in Microsoft Visual Studio.

  1. Go to Tools > Options -> NuGet Package Manager > General.
  2. Set Default package management format to "PackageReference".
Note

This setting is only applicable to legacy-style projects. For SDK-style projects, PackageReference is the only supported package management format.

If projects in your existing solutions are using the packages.config package management format, you will have to migrate these project to use the PackageReference package management format.

  1. In Microsoft Visual Studio, open a solution and go to the Solution Explorer.
  2. Navigate to a project, right-click References, and select Migrate packages.config to PackageReference....
  3. Repeat for every project in the current solution.

Configuring the default solution file format (VS 2026)

Microsoft Visual Studio 2026 defaults to using the new .slnx as the solution file format, while DIS currently only supports the .sln format. To ensure compatibility and proper functionality with DIS, solutions must keep using the .sln format until support for .slnx is added.

Follow these steps to configure Visual Studio to always use the .sln format when creating new solutions:

  1. In Visual Studio, go to Tools > Options.
  2. Navigate to the Projects and Solutions section.
  3. Set the Default Solution File Format to .sln (Visual Studio 2010-2022 Solution File Format).

To convert an existing .slnx solution to a .sln solution:

  1. Open the solution in Visual Studio.
  2. In the Solution Explorer, select the solution by clicking its name at the top of the hierarchy.
  3. Go to File > Save [Solution Name] As.
  4. In the Save As dialog box, select the file type .sln.
  5. Click Save.
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