Extract text from Visual Studio extension manifests (VSIXMANIFEST)
To convert VSIXMANIFEST extension manifests to another format, you need Visual Studio or other Developer software.
To convert other file formats to the "Extension Manifest File" file type, you need software like Visual Studio or a similar tool.
The .vsixmanifest file is an XML-based metadata document used by Microsoft Visual Studio to describe an extension payload. It stores critical deployment data such as the extension's name, author, version, dependencies, and licensing information. Developers package these files inside VSIX archives to distribute add-ons for the Visual Studio IDE.
You can open and edit a .vsixmanifest file using Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, or any standard text editor. It is a plain text file structured with XML tags.
A major disadvantage of the .vsixmanifest format is its rigid schema. If you make a syntax error, the extension will fail to install. Furthermore, standard web browsers and document viewers cannot execute or format this file properly, showing only raw code. It is tightly locked into the Microsoft development ecosystem and provides no standalone value outside of an extension archive.
Users often need to convert .vsixmanifest files to XML or JSON for easier automated parsing in continuous integration pipelines. Converting to TXT or PDF is also useful for sharing the extension's metadata with non-technical team members who do not have coding tools installed.
Because this is a specialized configuration file, standard document converters often fail to process it correctly. If our analysis detects the underlying text format, viewing or conversion to standard text formats is fully supported.
Convert.Guru analyzes your VSIXMANIFEST file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert VSIXMANIFEST file to , you can use Visual Studio or similar software from the "Visual Studio Extension Metadata" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert files to VSIXMANIFEST, try Visual Studio or another comparable tool in the "Visual Studio 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 VSIXMANIFEST converter.