How to Launch External Applications from Visual Studio 2005/2008

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Have you thought about launching external applications from Visual Studio? Although this may look obviously simple to a few, there are many who do not know how to launch external applications like Notepad, Calculator or for that matter any executable. Here’s how to launch external applications like Notepad from Visual Studio

Open Visual Studio 2008 > Go to Tools > External Tools

Click on ‘Add’ to add a new External Tool to the list. Set the ‘Title’ to Notepad and the ‘Command’ to the notepad.exe path, which in this case is ‘C:\Windows\Notepad.exe’

Click Ok. You can now access Notepad from the Tools Menu

How do I use the External Tool feature? Well I have Solitaire linked up in my External tools. Do I have to say more :)

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About The Author

Suprotim Agarwal, Developer Technologies MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional) is the founder and contributor for DevCurry, DotNetCurry and SQLServerCurry. He is the Chief Editor of a Developer Magazine called DNC Magazine. He has also authored two Books - 51 Recipes using jQuery with ASP.NET Controls. and The Absolutely Awesome jQuery CookBook.

Follow him on twitter @suprotimagarwal.