Installing XNA with Visual Studio 2015

I get this question so often? How can I install XNA with the latest version of Visual Studio.

The question generally comes from UK Academics still teaching XNA here the latest up to date how to use XNA and Visual Studio 2015.

Thanks to the Open Source Project MXA, XNA now works fine with Visual Studio 2015

XNA is a great framework for creating games, and we use it as a tool to motivate students to learn how to program whilst creating great games at extra-curricular events such as the three thing game.

Many academic still stress

A tool like XNA is an invaluable intrinsic motivator – inspiring students to want to learn to code, as opposed to being motivated because we said so, or because they will get better grades.

1- Download the latest version of this package MXA - XNA 4.0 Refresh for Visual Studio 2013 downloaded here

2- Unzip the content

3- Follow the readme and install all files except the 'vsix'

3- Open the 'XNA Game Studio 4.0.vsix' with the Windows zip extractor

4- Edit the .vsix file because it doesn't let you install it in VS 2015. It turns out it is simply a ZIP-File.

5- Simply edit the version numbers in extension.vsixmanifest to 14.0.

  1: <Installation InstalledByMsi="false">
  2:   <InstallationTarget Version="14.0" Id="Microsoft.VisualStudio.VSWinDesktopExpress" />
  3:   <InstallationTarget Version="14.0" Id="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Pro" />
  4:   <InstallationTarget Version="14.0" Id="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Premium" />
  5:   <InstallationTarget Version="14.0" Id="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Ultimate" />
  6: </Installation>

6- Copy the modified 'extension.vsixmanifest' into 'XNA Game Studio 4.0.vsix'

7- Run the vsix with Visual Studio