Visual Studio 2026 Install Workaround

Currently I see you don't support Visual Studio 2026 yet. I was just adding this here as a unsupported workaround for anybody who feels they need it, even though it's not supported.

I was able to get it to work, by first going to extensions and installing "AWS Toolkit with Amazon Q"
Then close VS and allow the extension to install.
Open VS again and go to extenstions, check under installed extensions and enable "AWS Toolkit with Amazon Q"
Restart VS
now under Extensions, go to AWS Tookit -> Getting started. and enable "Amazon Q developer and AWS Transform".
Once enabled you'll notice that you don't have Amazon Q under view because the version isn't supported.
Close VS
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Open up your file explorer and go to "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\18\Insiders\Common7\IDE\Extensions\"
Then in the search bar, search for "AwsToolkit.AmazonQ.v17.dll".
When you find the file, right click on it and select "Open file location". (This gives you the path of where it's installed, keep track of this folder path for later).
Grab this whole folder and copy it to a folder on your desktop.
Edit the "extension.vsixmanifest" filie in your desktop folder in a text editor and do a search and replace to change all instances of 18.0 to 19.0 and save your file. (This changes the max supported version of VS)
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Now open VS again
Go to Extensions and uninstall "AWS Toolkit with Amazon Q"
Close VS and let the extension manager run and remove the extension.
Copy the contents of your local desktop version back to the extension folder where the plugin was installed: For me it was C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\18\Insiders\Common7\IDE\Extensions\naiwahoh.zie
Right click on the "extension.vsixmanifest" file, go to properties. Open the security tab, click advanced and change the owner to your login and then click disable inheritance.
Lastly add "administrators" and change the access to read and execute only.
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Now open VS
go to extensions and install "AWS Toolkit with Amazon Q" (it might say it's already installed).
Close VS again to let the extension manager update if need be.
Open VS again, go back to extensions, look under installed and enable "AWS Toolkit with Amazon Q"
lastly restart VS and you should now see "Amazon Q Chat" listed under the view tab.
If you still don't see it there, go back to extensions, look under installed. click the settings gear on "AWS Toolkit with Amazon Q" click "Manage Extension Settings" and when the dialog box opens, expand AWS Toolkit on the left, click "Amazon Q" and make sure "Enable Amazon Q" is set to True.
Click "Ok" at the bottom of the dialog to save your changes and restart VS a last time and look under View to see Amazon Q Chat.

Review the AWS Toolkit with Amazon Q installation behavior for Visual Studio 2026, starting with the extension.vsixmanifest file and the mentioned Visual Studio Extensions paths. Clarify whether this workaround belongs in project documentation and identify the appropriate documentation entry point; done means a supported, reviewable workaround is documented without implying official support.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.