VSTA 2019 provides the ability to upgrade VSTA projects from Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008, compile, and run them.It simplifies tasks such as finding the installation of Visual Studio, launching the external process, and synchronizing save state, making integration significantly easier than previous versions.

VSTA 2019 presents a simplified API for integrating design-time experiences into your application using either managed (Visual C# or Visual Basic.With a supported version of Visual Studio (Community Edition or above) installed on your user’s machine, VSTA extends that functionality with the means to edit and debug those customizations. In standalone mode, VSTA provides your application with the means to load, compile, and run end user customizations. VSTA has two primary modes of operation: with Visual Studio (Community Edition or above) installed and standalone. Instead, a supported version of Visual Studio (Community Edition or above) is required to develop VSTA macros and add-ins. VSTA no longer provides its own Visual Studio Environment for authoring macros.Your organization can distribute and use the VSTA redistributable components free of charge.

There is no longer a licensing fee for the VSTA redistributable components.

Since the VSTA 2012 release, several changes have been introduced to the licensing model as well as to how you integrate VSTA into your applications: Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications lets you enable end users to customize your existing applications using Visual Basic and Visual C#.

Visual studio build tools 2019