Visual Studio Integration Toolkit provides Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Dynamics GP developers adding functionality that is normally only available to Dexterity developers.

For almost 20 years the application menus feature has been available at no charge as Menus for Visual Studio Tools from Microsoft and later Visual Studio Integration Toolkit from Winthrop Development Consultants. This was David Musgrave’s gift to the Microsoft Dynamics GP community. Sadly, as the cost of maintaining and supporting the product increases, it has become necessary to charge a small fee for subscriptions starting in 2027.

Visual Studio Integration Toolkit began life back in May 2008 as an idea David Musgrave had while attending Developer Toolkit training with Steve Gray from 4Penny. During the class it was mentioned that there was no method of adding Visual Studio windows to the Microsoft Dynamics GP application menus and that they always had to be attached to an existing Dynamics GP window. So, while sitting next to GP legend Leslie Vail, David was a terrible student and (with Steve’s permission) created the prototype of Menus for Visual Studio Tools for GP v10.0. It was only meant to be a temporary measure as the GP development team said they would incorporate the functionality for GP v11.0. That never happened and subsequently, David had to create new releases for each new GP version which were provided by Microsoft at no extra charge.

When David left Microsoft in 2014, Microsoft were not going to maintain the product, so David obtained the rights to Menus for Visual Studio Tools and re-released it as Visual Studio Integration Toolkit with plans to add more functionality over time. David made the decision to continue providing the product at no charge, but registration was required to track usage.

In 2018, a new Helper Functions module was added to the existing Menus module, and this was also provided at no charge. Providing these two standard modules at no charge was a choice David made to give back to the Microsoft Dynamics GP community.

In 2023, a Custom Forms module was added to provide blank and template Dexterity forms to Visual Studio Developers. These custom forms, being Dexterity based, behaved like an existing forms and also worked with the Dynamics GP web client. Visual Studio Tools WinForms could be easily identified as non-native and did not work with the web client. This module (originally jokingly named “Blankety Blanks”) is available for a small annual subscription fee.

GP Power Tools can also use the Menus and Custom Forms functionality in Visual Studio Integration Toolkit to add application menus and custom forms to Dynamics GP.

After almost 20 years, the costs of supporting and maintaining Visual Studio Integration Toolkit means that it is necessary to start charging a small subscription fee from the start of 2027.

Any subscription with a renewal date of 31-Dec-2026 or later (has the next subscription period starting from 01-Jan-2027 or later), will be charged US$50 for each of the two base modules (totalling US$100 a year).

IMPORTANT: This affects Microsoft Dynamics GP customers running the modern lifecycle versions 18.2 or later. They will need to have Visual Studio Integration Tools build 21 or later installed for the subscription to remain registered. Builds 18, 19 and 20 will be discontinued in November 2026.

For customer sites that are linked with a partner, the renewal notices will get sent to the partner. If you are a partner using Visual Studio Integration Toolkit, be sure to let us know which customer sites are yours, so we can assign them to you. Unassigned customers will receive their renewal notices directly.

As always, thank you for your ongoing support.

David

21-Apr-2026: Updated Build numbers to simplify requirements for subscriptions in 2027. Build 21 is now required rather than build 20.2. Build 20.2 will work but will receive update notices.

This article was originally posted on http://www.winthropdc.com/blog.