Prevent Visual Assist from loading

Visual Studio 2019 and newer

Use the Manage Extensions tool (Extensions | Manage Extensions) to disable Visual Assist.

Restart your IDE.

Visual Studio 2012 to 2017

Use the Extensions and Updates tool (Tools | Extensions and Updates) to disable Visual Assist.

Restart your IDE.

Visual Studio 2010

Use the Extension Manager (Tools | Extension Manager) to disable Visual Assist.

Restart your IDE.

Visual Studio 2008

By design of Microsoft, described here, you cannot use the Add-In Manager to prevent Visual Assist from loading at startup. Instead, exit your IDE and edit the registry:

For 32-bit Windows:

HKLM \ Software \ Microsoft \ VisualStudio \ 9.0 \ Addins \ VAssistNET.Connect9 \ LoadBehavior = 0

For 64-bit Windows:

HKLM \ Software \ Wow6432Node \ Microsoft \ VisualStudio \ 9.0 \ Addins \ VAssistNET.Connect9 \ LoadBehavior = 0

Set the value data 1 to make Visual Assist load on startup.

Visual Studio 2005

By design of Microsoft, described here, you cannot use the Add-In Manager to prevent Visual Assist from loading at startup. Instead, exit your IDE and edit the registry:

For 32-bit Windows:

HKLM \ Software \ Microsoft \ VisualStudio \ 8.0 \ Addins \ VAssistNET.Connect8 \ LoadBehavior = 0

For 64-bit Windows:

HKLM \ Software \ Wow6432Node \ Microsoft \ VisualStudio \ 8.0 \ Addins \ VAssistNET.Connect8 \ LoadBehavior = 0

Set the value data to 1 to make Visual Assist load on startup.

Visual Studio 2003 and Visual Studio 2002

In IDE | Tools | Add-in Manager, uncheck Startup for Visual Assist.

Visual C++ 6.0

In IDE | Tools | Customize | Add-ins and Macro Files, uncheck the entry for Visual Assist.