This is the official software development kit that allows developers to integrate tools, editors, designers, languages, and other features inside Visual Studio 2008.

Key features in the VS 2008 SDK include:

• Visual Studio Shell development support
• Enhancements in Domain-specific Language tools
• Visual Studio Package development and testing support for C++, C# and Visual Basic
• Code samples and documentation covering toolbox controls integration, general IDE integration, Domain-specific Languages (DSL), Team Foundation Server extensibility, Data Designers extensibility , and other areas
• Support for Windows Vista

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (isolated mode) Redistributable Package
  
  The Visual Studio Shell (isolated mode) provides a foundation on which you can build your own custom-branded tools environment that runs side by side with Visual Studio. By using the Visual Studio Shell (isolated mode), you can accelerate development by reusing the Visual Studio IDE in your application and focus on your core tooling problems. This download contains the redistributable runtime binaries that you can distribute with your Visual Studio Shell (isolated mode) based application.



• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) Redistributable Package
  
  The Visual Studio Shell (integrated mode) provides the foundation on which you can seamlessly integrate tools and programming languages within Visual Studio. The Visual Studio Shell (integrated mode) does not contain any programming language, so it provides the perfect foundation to deploy a development environment for your own language. The Visual Studio Shell (integrated mode) seamlessly integrates with Visual Studio 2008 Standard and above. Any tools and programming languages that run inside the Visual Studio Shell (integrated mode) will run together with Visual Studio 2008 (Standard and above) if they are also installed on the same machine. By using the Visual Studio Shell (integrated mode), you will not need to make Visual Studio a pre-requisite on your user machines. This download contains the redistributable runtime binaries that you can distribute with your Visual Studio tools and programming languages.