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I installed the free version of ApexSQL which is awesome in SSMS, but I really don't want all those menus in Visual Studio. I went to add-in manager and unchecked them, but the Startup column is checked and disabled so every time I restart Visual Studio they come back.

Is it possible to permanently remove the ApexSQL menus from Visual Studio?

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  • I've got the exact same issue with Visual Studio 2015, and the Add-in manager was deprecated since VS2013. How can I remove it from VS2015?
    – Philippe Raemy
    Commented Sep 22, 2016 at 9:34
  • Phillippe, this issue seems to be back in VS 2015/VS 15 Preview 3. I had uninstalled the Apex tools but the menu still appeared, and on every restart the Apex default shortcuts were overriding my preferences. Using any menu item produced an exception that crashed VS. I went to the C:\Program Files and C:\Program Files (x84) folders and searched for the string Apex. Then I deleted everything that looked like it was related to this extension. It seems like the uninstall had failed to remove all the extension assemblies from the appropriate VS folders.
    – rvorderm
    Commented Dec 13, 2016 at 3:30
  • For VS2015, you can follow the instructions on this page : knowledgebase.apexsql.com/manually-uninstall-apexsql-add
    – Maxime Peloquin
    Commented Feb 16, 2017 at 20:57
  • I would very much like the VS Add-Ins if it didn't hijack (and re-hijack) some of my keyboard shortcuts such as Ctrl+Shift+W.
    – Adam Caviness
    Commented Apr 7, 2017 at 20:00

4 Answers 4

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If you have ApexSql installed and you don't want those pesky menus in Visual Studio do 2 things.

  1. In Visual Studio, go to Tools > Add-in Manager and uncheck the ApexSql addins. Close Visual Studio.
  2. In Windows 7, there's a hidden folder C:\ProgramData. In Windows Explorer go to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\MSEnvShared\AddIns folder. Edit each of the *.MsvsLoader.Addin files and set <LoadBehavior> to 0. If you can't save the files directly, you'll have to save the files to a different location (desktop maybe) and then copy them back into C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\MSEnvShared\AddIns because there's some Admin privilege required.

Now when you restart VS those ApexSQL menus should be gone

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  • 2
    I didn't have Add-in manager in tools. But I followed this article: knowledgebase.apexsql.com/…
    – Jerome2606
    Commented Aug 11, 2017 at 9:15
  • I used the knowledgebase link above. For Visual Studio '19, Delete ApexSql folder from C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\Extensions
    – malckier
    Commented Aug 13, 2019 at 20:45
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The issue of crowding menus is resolved in latest releases, now all ApexSQL add-ins are under the main ApexSQL menu as sub-menus. They look like this now:

enter image description here

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If you don't need ApexSQL add-ins in VS or SSMS you can simply choose not to integrate them with VS or SSMS during the installation, just check out SSMS ot VS version in which you want the add-ins integrated

enter image description here

Note: To get this dialog in which you can check the wanted integration you need to use individual installers not the main one. You can find all individual installers on this link

Disclaimer: I work for ApexSQL as a Support Engineer

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For Visual Studio 2010 on Windows 7, I attempted @Chris Bayles suggestion and do not see ApexSql addins under Tools->Add-in Manager.

I followed @Jerome2606's pointer to https://knowledgebase.apexsql.com/remove-add-ins-just-visual-studio-retaining-sql-server-management-studio/ and it worked for me, but only when I removed the parent ApexSQL folder as well.

Summary of what is required to do: Remove folder 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\ApexSQL

Depending on the version of Visual Studio, the version number in the default installation location will be different:

Product name    Version number
Visual Studio 2010  Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0
Visual Studio 2012  Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0
Visual Studio 2013  Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0
Visual Studio 2015  Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0

Select and delete the ApexSQL folder and its contents.

Open Command Prompt as an administrator, then run

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" /setup

Please note the command is different for Visual Studio 2012, 2013, and 2015.

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If you are using SSMS v18.0 then you can disable the apex features in following way. SSMS details window

You can find the ApexSQL.Complete.Addin.SSMS18.pkgdef file from following path.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 18\Common7\IDE\Extensions\ApexSQL Complete

Then open this file in Notepad++ Administrator mode and comment the content.

If you need further reading follow this link. https://knowledgebase.apexsql.com/remove-apexsql-tools-sql-server-management-studio/

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