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In VS 2010, extension manager is part of a nice new generation of VS plug-in system. One of the great features of it is how it can go online talk to Microsoft Visual Studio Gallery website to retrieve list of extensions there, automatically discovering updates for installed extensions, and allowing me to add new extensions directly from within Visual Studio.

The Problem:

However, in my company I could not take benefit of that for long time. Reason is, the company uses Blue Coat proxy, with some active directory based authentication. We cannot access the Internet unless we use that proxy, no direct connection allowed, most other proxies are also blocked (by blocking the common proxies port 8080 and many other common ports).

Although I have the proxy set in Internet Explorer, and I have the username/password stored in my Windows Credentials store  (Start–> Run–> Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Credential Manager) -since my primary work laptop and user account on it are not part of the company domain-, Visual Studio did not seem to be able to use that.

Anything that requires online communication not directly using the browser is not working. The main feature missed by this is Extensions Manager integration with the Visual Studio Gallery online.

Microsoft has recently opened a new sub-site of MSDN, MSDN Code Gallery. Here’s their main statement:

Download and share sample applications, code snippets and other resources

MSDN Code Gallery is your destination for downloading sample applications and code snippets , as well as sharing your own resources.

Usually, people would go for community sites for code samples sharing, or create some open source area like CodePlex, creating projects that only work as sample base. Others would use those or the sample codes available in different MSDN dev centers from time to time for downloading code samples.
Now, we have the place for those little snippets :).

Start Downloading Code Samples and Create Your Own Right Away!