Extract text from Visual Studio add-ins (ADDIN)
To convert ADDIN add-ins to another format, you need Microsoft Visual Studio or other Developer software.
To convert other file formats to the "Configuration File" file type, you need software like Microsoft Visual Studio or a similar tool.
The .addin file is an XML-formatted configuration document originally utilized by Microsoft Visual Studio (specifically versions up to 2013) to register and load custom IDE extensions. These files do not contain compiled code; instead, they store metadata such as the extension's name, description, load behavior, and the local path to the associated executable DLL file.
Historically, developers relied on .addin files to customize their development environments. However, the format suffers from severe modern disadvantages. It is officially deprecated and completely unsupported in modern versions of Visual Studio, which now rely on the VSIX package format. Attempting to use an .addin file today will simply fail, leaving users confused about why their legacy plugin will not install.
Converting an .addin file usually means extracting its XML text to standard formats like TXT, XML, or JSON for documentation, debugging, or migration planning. Standard online converters routinely fail to process .addin files because they do not recognize the niche developer extension and are hardcoded to look for standard documents or images.
This is where our tool helps.
Convert.Guru analyzes your ADDIN file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert ADDIN file to JS, TS, PY, JAVA, CPP, C, CS, PHP, RB, GO, RS or SWIFT, you can use Microsoft Visual Studio or similar software from the "IDE Extension Metadata" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert SH, PY, KT, PS1, SWIFT, LUA, PL, JAVA, SCALA, JS, VBS or TS files to ADDIN, try Microsoft Visual Studio or another comparable tool in the "IDE Extension Metadata" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our ADDIN converter.