How to remove ApexSQL menus from Visual Studio?

The issue of crowding menus is resolved in latest releases, now all ApexSQL add-ins are under the main ApexSQL menu as sub-menus. They look like this now:

If you don't need ApexSQL add-ins in VS or SSMS you can simply choose not to integrate them with VS or SSMS during the installation, just check out SSMS ot VS version in which you want the add-ins integrated

Note: To get this dialog in which you can check the wanted integration you need to use individual installers not the main one. You can find all individual installers on this link

Disclaimer: I work for ApexSQL as a Support Engineer

For Visual Studio 2010 on Windows 7, I attempted @Chris Bayles suggestion and do not see ApexSql addins under Tools->Add-in Manager.

I followed @Jerome2606's pointer to https://knowledgebase.apexsql.com/remove-add-ins-just-visual-studio-retaining-sql-server-management-studio/ and it worked for me, but only when I removed the parent ApexSQL folder as well.

Summary of what is required to do: Remove folder

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\ApexSQL

Depending on the version of Visual Studio, the version number in the default installation location will be different:

Product name    Version number
Visual Studio 2010  Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0
Visual Studio 2012  Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0
Visual Studio 2013  Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0
Visual Studio 2015  Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0

Select and delete the ApexSQL folder and its contents.

Open Command Prompt as an administrator, then run

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" /setup

Please note the command is different for Visual Studio 2012, 2013, and 2015.

If you have ApexSql installed and you don't want those pesky menus in Visual Studio do 2 things.

1. In Visual Studio, go to Tools > Add-in Manager and uncheck the ApexSql addins. Close Visual Studio.
2. In Windows 7, there's a hidden folder C:\ProgramData. In Windows Explorer go to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\MSEnvShared\AddIns folder. Edit each of the *.MsvsLoader.Addin files and set <LoadBehavior> to 0. If you can't save the files directly, you'll have to save the files to a different location (desktop maybe) and then copy them back into C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\MSEnvShared\AddIns because there's some Admin privilege required.

Now when you restart VS those ApexSQL menus should be gone