To test your plugin, the GearInstrumentation.AddIn file has to be copied into your directory:
C:\Documents and Settings\<YOUR USER NAME>\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Addins\
_and_ it has to be modified.
Open your copy of GearInstrumentation.AddIn in C:\Documents and Settings\<YOUR USER NAME>\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Addins\
with a text editor and within the <Assembly></Assembly> element, insert the FULL path of the addin's DLL, like
D:\sandbox1716\technology-group-playground\framework\<YOUR BRANCH>\framework\gear\private\tools\VisualStudioAddIns\GearInstrumentation\bin\GearInstrumentation.dll