Installing PostSharp Unattended

PostSharp is composed of a user interface (Visual Studio Tools for Metalama and PostSharp) and build components (NuGet packages). NuGet packages are usually checked into source control or retrieved from a package repository at build time (see Restoring Packages at Build Time), so its deployment does not require additional automation. The user interface is typically installed by each user. It does not require administrative privileges.

You can install PostSharp automatically for a large number of users using a script.

To install Visual Studio Tools for Metalama and PostSharp on a machine:

1. Execute command line VsixInstaller.exe /q PostSharpMetalama-VERSION.vsix . The file can be downloaded from Visual Studio Gallery. Exit codes other than 0 or 1001 should be considered as errors.

2. Install the license key or the license server URL in the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SharpCrafters\PostSharp 3, registry value LicenseKey (type REG_SZ).

This procedure can be automated by the following PowerShell 2.0 script:

# TODO: Set the right value for the following variables

# Replace with the proper version number and add the full path.
$postsharpFile = "PostSharpMetalama.2024.1.11.vsix"

# Replace by your license key or license server URL.
$license = "XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"

# Replace the path to the Visual Studio installation with the actual path on your system.
$vsixInstaller = "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\VsixInstaller.exe"

# Install Visual Studio Tools for Metalama and PostSharp
Write-Host "Installing Visual Studio Tools for Metalama and PostSharp"
$process = Start-Process -FilePath $vsixInstaller -ArgumentList @("/q", $postsharpFile) -Wait -PassThru
if ( $process.ExitCode -ne 0 -and $process.ExitCode -ne 1001)
{
    Write-Host "Error: VsixInstaller exited with code" $process.ExitCode -ForegroundColor Red
}

# Install the license key
Write-Host "Installing the license key"
$regPath = "HKCU:\Software\SharpCrafters\PostSharp 3"

if ( -not ( Test-Path $regPath ) )
{
    New-Item -Path $regPath | Out-Null
}

Set-ItemProperty -Path $regPath -Name "LicenseKey" -Value $license

Write-Host "Done"