Installation
Dotfuscator Community is included for free with Microsoft Visual Studio.
This page details how to obtain Dotfuscator Community so that you can begin protecting your application.
Note: In addition to the versions of Dotfuscator Community shipped with releases of Visual Studio, PreEmptive Solutions also periodically provides updated versions on its website. If you want to download the latest version directly instead of installing from Visual Studio, click here to go to the Dotfuscator Downloads page.
Installing the Dotfuscator Community Component
Dotfuscator Community has been included with Visual Studio since Visual Studio .NET 2003. Visual Studio 2017 introduced a new low-impact installation experience, meaning that Dotfuscator Community is no longer installed by default, but is instead available through the Visual Studio Installer. This section covers how to install the Dotfuscator Community component in Visual Studio versions 2017 and 2019.
Within Visual Studio
You can install Dotfuscator Community from the Visual Studio IDE:
In the Search Box (Ctrl+Q), type
dotfuscator
.Note: In Visual Studio 2017 the search box is referred to as the Quick Launch window (Ctrl+Q).
In the search results shown, under the Components heading, select Install PreEmptive Protection - Dotfuscator.
Note: In Visual Studio 2017, Dotfuscator Community will appear under the Install heading.
- If you instead see, under the Menus heading, PreEmptive Protection - Dotfuscator Community, then Dotfuscator Community is already installed. Select that option to get started. In Visual Studio 2017, it will appear as Tools → PreEmptive Protection - Dotfuscator Community.
A Visual Studio Installer window will launch, pre-configured to install Dotfuscator Community.
Note: You may be required to provide administrator credentials to continue.
In the Visual Studio Installer window, click Install.
Once the installation is complete, you can start using Dotfuscator Community.
During Visual Studio Installation
If you have not yet installed Visual Studio, you can obtain the installer from the Visual Studio website. When run, it will display installation options for the selected Visual Studio edition:
You can then install Dotfuscator Community as an individual component of Visual Studio:
Select the Individual components tab.
Under Code tools, check the PreEmptive Protection - Dotfuscator item.
The Summary panel displays PreEmptive Protection - Dotfuscator under the Individual Components section.
Configure any further installation settings as appropriate for your environment.
When ready to install Visual Studio, click the Install button.
Once the installation is complete, you can start using Dotfuscator Community.