If you are developing SharePoint 2010 applications in Visual Studio 2010, you would wonder why there is no Deactivate Features deployment step available but only Activate Features deployment step.

This becomes a problem when you retract your solution as the features do not get deactivate from the site.

Let me introduce to my first Visual Studio 2010 Tools for SharePoint 2010 extension – Deactivate Features Deployment Step 

Deactivate Features Deployment Step is an extension for Visual Studio 2010 tools for SharePoint 2010. Use this deployment step to deactivate features in a local SharePoint site.

It is available for download at the Visual Studio Gallery or from your Visual Studio 2010 Extensions Manager