Visual Studio–Share your settings

In VSCode you can share your settings through profiles. This allows you to easily apply your UI layout, settings and extensions to multiple VSCode instances.

A similar thing is possible in Visual Studio. Settings can be exported through the Import and Export Settings Wizard:

• Go to Tools –> Import and Export Settings

• Choose Export selected environment settings and click on Next >
  

• Now you can choose which settings should be exported. Check or uncheck the settings you want to export and click on Next >
  

• Specify where you want to store your .vssettingsfile file and click on Finish

• You can now close the wizard.

Remark: When you sign in to Visual Studio on multiple computers using the same personalization account, your settings can be synchronized across the computers.

Although the .vssettings file allows you to share a lot of configuration settings, it cannot be used to share the installed features and extensions. However this is possible through an installation configuration file(.vsconfig) and the Visual Studio Installer.

• To export a configuration open the Visual Studio Installer
  

• Click on More on the product card and choose Export configuration

• Specify the location and click on Review details
  

• Select or unselect specific components and click on Export
  

Here is how the exported vsconfig file looks like:

	{
	"version": "1.0",
	"components": [
	"Component.Xamarin",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Roslyn.Compiler",
	"Microsoft.Component.MSBuild",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Roslyn.LanguageServices",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.MSODBC.SQL",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.MSSQL.CMDLnUtils",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.SQL.LocalDB.Runtime",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.SQL.CLR",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.CoreEditor",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.CoreEditor",
	"Microsoft.Net.Component.4.8.SDK",
	"Microsoft.Net.Component.4.7.2.TargetingPack",
	"Microsoft.Net.ComponentGroup.DevelopmentPrerequisites",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.TypeScript.TSServer",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.WebToolsExtensions",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.JavaScript.TypeScript",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.JavaScript.Diagnostics",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.TextTemplating",
	"Component.Microsoft.VisualStudio.RazorExtension",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.IISExpress",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.NuGet",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Common.Azure.Tools",
	"Microsoft.Component.ClickOnce",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.ManagedDesktop.Core",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.SQL.SSDT",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.SQL.DataSources",
	"Component.Microsoft.Web.LibraryManager",
	"Component.Microsoft.WebTools.BrowserLink.WebLivePreview",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.Web",
	"Microsoft.NetCore.Component.Runtime.8.0",
	"Microsoft.NetCore.Component.SDK",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.FSharp",
	"Microsoft.ComponentGroup.ClickOnce.Publish",
	"Microsoft.NetCore.Component.DevelopmentTools",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.FSharp.WebTemplates",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.DockerTools",
	"Microsoft.NetCore.Component.Web",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.WebDeploy",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.AppInsights.Tools",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Web",
	"Microsoft.Net.Component.4.8.TargetingPack",
	"Microsoft.Net.ComponentGroup.4.8.DeveloperTools",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.AspNet45",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.AspNet",
	"Component.Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.AzureFunctions",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.AzureFunctions",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Debugger.Snapshot",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.Web.CloudTools",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.IntelliTrace.FrontEnd",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.DiagnosticTools",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.EntityFramework",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.LiveUnitTesting",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Debugger.JustInTime",
	"Component.Microsoft.VisualStudio.LiveShare.2022",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.WslDebugging",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.IntelliCode",
	"Microsoft.NetCore.Component.Runtime.6.0",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Wcf.Tooling",
	"microsoft.net.runtime.mono.tooling",
	"microsoft.net.runtime.mono.tooling.net7",
	"microsoft.net.runtime.mono.tooling.net6",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NetWeb",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Azure.ClientLibs",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.Azure.Prerequisites",
	"Microsoft.Component.Azure.DataLake.Tools",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Azure.ResourceManager.Tools",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.Azure.ResourceManager.Tools",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Azure.AuthoringTools",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Azure.Waverton.BuildTools",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Azure.Compute.Emulator",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Azure.Waverton",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.Azure.CloudServices",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Azure.ServiceFabric.Tools",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Azure.Powershell",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.Azure",
	"Microsoft.Component.PythonTools",
	"Microsoft.Component.PythonTools.Web",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.Python",
	"maui.core",
	"maui.blazor",
	"microsoft.net.runtime.android.net7",
	"microsoft.net.runtime.android.aot.net7",
	"microsoft.net.runtime.android",
	"microsoft.net.runtime.android.aot",
	"android",
	"Component.OpenJDK",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.MonoDebugger",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Merq",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.Maui.Android",
	"runtimes.ios",
	"microsoft.net.runtime.ios",
	"runtimes.ios.net7",
	"microsoft.net.runtime.ios.net7",
	"ios",
	"Component.Xamarin.RemotedSimulator",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.Maui.iOS",
	"runtimes.maccatalyst",
	"microsoft.net.runtime.maccatalyst",
	"runtimes.maccatalyst.net7",
	"microsoft.net.runtime.maccatalyst.net7",
	"maccatalyst",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.Maui.MacCatalyst",
	"maui.windows",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.MSIX.Packaging",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.Maui.Windows",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.Maui.Blazor",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.WebToolsExtensions.TemplateEngine",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.Maui.Shared",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.Maui.All",
	"Component.Android.SDK.MAUI",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NetCrossPlat",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.ManagedDesktop.Prerequisites",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.DotNetModelBuilder",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.FSharp.Desktop",
	"Microsoft.ComponentGroup.Blend",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.ManagedDesktop",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.DataScience",
	"Microsoft.NetCore.Component.Runtime.7.0"
	],
	"extensions": []
	}

view raw .vsconfig hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Remark: Support for extensions got included in Visual Studio 2022 v17.9. As the feature is quite new, not everything is supported yet.

Extensions can be added manually by specifying them in the extensions section in the vsconfig file:

	{
	"version": "1.0",
	"components": [
	// Whatever components you want to install come here, in quotes, separated by commas.
	// You can use the installer to select the components you want to install and then export them,
	// Or you can specify the ones you want according to the [component-id's](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/install/workload-and-component-ids).
	// This array should not be null! If you don't want to install any component, just leave the array empty.
	],
	"extensions": [
	// The extensions you want to install are specified in this section, in quotes, separated by commas.
	// Extensions are optional in .vsconfig, so if you don't want any, you can delete the entire extensions section.
	// The extensions must be in a *.vsix package
	// Make sure that the extensions you specify are designed to work with that version of Visual Studio.
	// example syntax:
	"https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MadsKristensen.ImageOptimizer64bit"
	]
	}

view raw extensions.vsconfig hosted with ❤ by GitHub

More information

Customize & save your personal Visual Studio IDE settings - Visual Studio (Windows) | Microsoft Learn

Synchronize settings across multiple computers - Visual Studio (Windows) | Microsoft Learn

Import or export installation configurations | Microsoft Learn