Photoshop needs a PiPL resource so it knows static information about your plugin (we cache it for faster warm launches, see comment below). The only way to do this, that I know if, is with a Rez compiler. You could manually create the rez output yourself. (lots of work) If you don't want an About menu then put NoAboutBox {}, in your PiPL. If you don't want a menu item then add Category { "**Hidden**" },, in your PiPL. On windows I do the following after a .r edit. Right click on your .r file in Visual Studio and click compile. You should see Cnvtpipl run. Right click on your .rc file and click compile. Compile your plugin. These steps are not necessary on mac as the .r is a known file type for Xcode. Remember my cache comment. Make sure you restart Photoshop and remove the preferences file for plugins. I hold down the Shift-Alt-Ctrl keys when launching (the claw) which will give you a "Delete the Adobe Photoshop Settings File?" which I say yes to. This will cause Ps to rescan all plugins and look for new PiPL's.
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