Setup a 'Get Public Key' Tool

If you're a SharePoint developer, you've run into public key tokens but what you might not know is that Visual Studio comes with an executable that can make retrieving them a much easier process.

The following steps will add a "Get Public Key' option to your Tools menu in Visual Studio:

• Click 'Tools > External Tools'
• Click 'Add' and a new entry will appear
• In the 'Title' field type: Get Public Key
• Click the '...' button and navigate to the appropriate sn.exe
• If VS 2008: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bin\sn.exe
• If VS 2010*: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin\sn.exe
• In the 'Arguments' field type: -Tp "$(TargetPath)"
• Select 'Use Output window' checkbox
• Click 'OK'

This will save you a ton of time if you are still using tools like Reflector to get the public key.

* This path is from a 64-bit version of Windows.