In the documentation for Visual Micro at: http://www.visualmicro.com/page/User-Guide.aspx?doc=How-The-Tools-Play-Together....
One can see that when Visual Micro is installed along with MS Visual Studio the Arduino IDE is no longer used. Only the gcc toolchain is involved (and USB stuff). I am trying to figure out how the gcc is guided when comes commands for compiling and uploading. Here is a specific question: 
If the Arduino IDE is no longer needed, can I delete much of the Arduino installation and it's 150Mb Java folder? 
Am I correct to assume that all that is needed are the gcc*.exe files and boards definitions ? 
Of course it is correct to assume that I will no longer use the Arduino IDE.