Home/ Questions/Q 235927
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-11T20:18:15+00:00

I’m using Visual Studio and COM with C# for the first time and there’s

  • 0

I’m using Visual Studio and COM with C# for the first time and there’s something I don’t quite understand about the ‘references’. How do you know what to reference with a given ‘using something.something’? The .Net references seem fairly simple, but COM is less obvious. I’m running Visual Studio 2005 and have the latest VSTO installed, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out what I need to reference to satisfy:

using Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Runtime;

There are a few Microsoft.VisualStudio things in the .Net tab, but none that continue with .Tools or anything like it. I feel like I’m missing a key concept here.

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    There are two issues here –

    First, a reference doesn’t necessarily correspond to a namespace. A single reference can contain multiple namespaces, and a single namespace can be shared by multiple assemblies which would need to be referenced. Needing to include a reference allows you to use specific types, not entire namespaces.

    Second, this is something you’ll need to know in advance. If you’re using Microsoft’s classes, such as the ones in the namespace you listed, MSDN can be a great help.

    For example, take Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Runtime.ServerDocument

    If you look at the MSDN page for this class (in that namespace), near the top it includes:

    Namespace: Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Runtime

    Assembly: Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Runtime (in microsoft.visualstudio.tools.applications.runtime.dll)

    This specifically tells you which assembly is required.

    • 0