NuGet is a "Package Manager" that can and should be used with Visual Studio 2010 because it makes installing and updating the libraries, frameworks and extensions so much easier. To install NuGet, I go to Tools -> Extension Manager within Visual Studio and search for the NuGet in the online gallery. In the search results, all I have to do is click "Install".
Now, what if I have Entity Framework installed and want to update version 4 to 4.2? I don't have to search it somewhere on download.microsoft.com or elsewhere. Right within my project I go to References, right-click and select "Add library package reference".
The Entity Framework is installed, but it's version 4.1.
I select "Updates" from the menu on the left and immediately see that 4.2 is available. I select "Update", accept terms and conditions and I'm done.
Steps that are not required: searching for an update package, manual download of the package, manual uninstall of the previous version, manual install of the new version, verifying that I save the downloaded package in an easily accessible location in case anyone in my team also needs it ... Time saved per package update: anywhere between 3 and 30 minutes.
However, it does not always go smoothly. Just today I tried to add a package "on the fly". Right-click my model, go to "Add code generation item", select "ADO.NET C# DbContext Generator" and click "Install". And here Visual Studio stopped responding.
I killed it, repeated the sequence of actions and it stopped responding again. So I started it and added the package through the Tools -> Extension Manager as described above and it worked perfectly. So, don't ask too much from your favourite IDE.
by Evgeny. Also posted on my website
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