I have Visual Studio community 2017. coming from eclipse it was just enough to copy file to project directory and hit refresh then files were appearing in project explorer.
In VS, however when I copy some i.e. *.cpp or *.h in windows explorer to project directory, in VS solution explorer I can not see them. switching to folder view I see but can not include them into project.
via drag&drop to solution explorer (project view) I see them but are not part of project and in folder view and actual directory there is nothing.
what is going on with VS? How can I manually copy paste some files into project while they become part of project?
I will note that there's nothing "going on" with Visual Studio in the sense that something is actually wrong with it, it's just that adding files to your project just requires you to actually add them to your solution. Essentially, it allows you to add miscellaneous files to your folders without automatically including them in your build project (for example, if you're working with some test images/files).
To add files/folders to your project you simply right click on your project in the Solution Explorer and then go to Add > Existing Item.... Then, it's just a matter of selecting one (or Ctrl + A/Shift Clicking to select all/multiple files) and then it will add them to your solution.
In the solution explorer pane, click on the show all files button,
it will reveal all files including your pasted file,
Right click on your file and select "include in project".
Does anyone have a way to add multiple folders and (existing) files within those folders to a Visual Studio project in a single step (or via macro)? Let's assume all of the folders and files were copied/pasted into the project folder where they need to reside relative to the project folder, but are not actually stored in the .csproj or .vbproj file, which I believe is a requirement to compile those files into the solution/project.
This works great if you have a web application project in your solution, but not so well if you have a .csproj or .vbproj. In that case, you must manually add folders (and nested folders), and add existing files and browse to each one individually, which can take a long time.
In the solution explorer, select the project, click the "Show All Files" button - .
This will show all the files, even those not part of the project. You can now select all of these in the solution explorer (using Ctrl + Click) then right click and go to "Include In Project".
In Visual Studio 2013 (and possibly earlier) you drag the folder from windows explorer and drop it on the project in the solution explorer.
Other answer given in this thread wouldn't work for me as the files I want to add (DTSX files) are in a different folder, and copying/moving them causes other problems. Here is what worked for me:
Using Visual Studio 2015, use Windows Explorer to locate the files you want to add to your project. Copy those files to the clipboard. If DTSX files are what you are dealing with, in the Solution Explorer right-click on SSIS Packages, and then click on Paste.
I have a rather involved Visual Studio solution (2010, but it shouldn't matter) that I need to rename.
I want to rename the folders to match the new solution name, but I can't figure out a way to refactor the folder names automatically, and going through every single project file will be painful.
Is there an official way to do this?
Manually edit .sln file
This method is entirely aimed at renaming the directory for the project, as viewed in Windows Explorer.
This method does not suffer from the problems in the Remove/add project file method below (references disappearing), but it can result in problems if your project is under source control (see notes below). This is why step 2 (backup) is so important.
Close Visual Studio.
Create a backup of your .sln file (you can always roll back).
Imagine you want to rename directory Project1 to Project2.
If not using source control, rename the folder from Project1 to Project2 using Windows Explorer.
If using source control, rename the folder from Project1 to Project2 using the functions supplied by source control. This preserves the history of the file. For example, with TortoiseSVN, right click on the file, select TortoiseSVN .. Rename.
In the .sln file, edit all instances of Project1 to be Project2, using a text editor like NotePad.
Restart Visual Studio, and everything will work as before, but with the project in a different directory.
You can also see renaming solution manually or post which describes this manual process.
Advantages
You can make the directory within Windows Explorer match the project name within the solution.
This method does not remove any references from other projects to this file (an advantage over the Remove/add project file method, see my other answer below).
Warnings
It's important to back everything up into a .zip file before renaming anything, as this method can create issues with source control.
If your project is under source control, it may create issues if you rename files or
directories outside of source control (using Windows Explorer). Its preferable to rename the file using the source control framework itself, if you can, to preserve the history of that file (check out the context menu on a right click - it may have a function to rename the file).
Update 2014-11-02
ReSharper has added an automated method for achieving the same result as the manual method above. If the namespace is underlined with a squiggly blue line, click on the action pyramid icon to either:
Rename the namespace to match the directory name in Windows Explorer, or;
Rename the directory in Windows Explorer to match the namespace.
In the second case, the final word defines the new directory name in Windows Explorer, e.g. if we changed the namespace to ViewModel2, it would offer to move the file to folder ViewModel2.
However, this will not necessarily update files in source control, so you may still have to use the manual method.
Update 2018-01-31
Tested with Visual Studio 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017 Update 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Update 2020-05-02
Tested with Visual Studio 2019.
Update 2021-11-19
Retested. Still works.
Update 2022-11-30
Latest version of Git should auto-detect file renames, so no extra care is needed to preserve the history of diffs.
To rename a solution:
In Solution Explorer, right-click the project, select Rename, and
enter a new name.
In Solution Explorer, right-click the project and select Properties.
On the Application tab, change the "Assembly name" and "Default
namespace".
In the main cs file (or any other code files), rename the namespace
declaration to use the new name. For this right-click the namespace
and select Refactor > Rename enter a new name. For example:
namespace WindowsFormsApplication1
Change the AssemblyTitle and AssemblyProduct in
Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs.
[assembly: AssemblyTitle("New Name Here")]
[assembly: AssemblyDescription("")]
[assembly: AssemblyConfiguration("")]
[assembly: AssemblyCompany("")]
[assembly: AssemblyProduct("New Name Here")]
[assembly: AssemblyCopyright("Copyright © 2013")]
[assembly: AssemblyTrademark("")]
[assembly: AssemblyCulture("")]
Delete bin and obj directories physically.
Rename the project physical folder directory.
Open the SLN file (within notepad or any editor) and change the path
to the project.
Clean and Rebuild the project.
The Rename operations in Visual Studio only change the filename, i.e. *.prj for a project, and *.sln for a solution. You will need to rename folders separately using the filesystem, and you will need to remove and re-add the projects since they will have new folder names. However, note that the solution and project files are respectively text and xml files. You could write your own program that parses them and renames both the folder names, filenames, and fixes the project/solution files internally.
You can also export template and then create a new project from the exported template changing the name as you prefer
Below is a step-by-step way of renaming your entire solution in Visual Studio 2013
Assuming we're changing a project named "HelloWorld.ui" to "Section1to5.ui"
Go to solution explorer (screenshot below), right click on the project that you wish to rename and select "Rename". Enter the new name that you desire.
Right click on the Project that you have just renamed, and click on "Properties". Under the Application tab, change the "Assembly name" and "Default namespace".
In the main Program.cs file (or any other code files that you may have created), rename the namespace declaration to use the new name. For this right-click the namespace and select Refactor > Rename enter a new name. For example:
namespace HelloWorld.ui ----> namespace Section1to5.ui
Next, expand the "Properties" and double click on AssemblyInfo.cs file. You will notice the below code fragment:
[assembly: AssemblyTitle("HelloWorld.ui")]
[assembly: AssemblyDescription("")]
[assembly: AssemblyConfiguration("")]
[assembly: AssemblyCompany("Microsoft")]
[assembly: AssemblyProduct("HelloWorld.ui")]
[assembly: AssemblyCopyright("Copyright © Microsoft 2015")]
[assembly: AssemblyTrademark("")]
[assembly: AssemblyCulture("")]
You need to change the AssemblyTitle and AssemblyProduct in Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs to the new name, in this example from "HelloWorld.ui" to "Section1to5.ui". Once you're done changing the name, save and close Visual Studio.
In the project directory, go inside the folder "HelloWorld.ui" and delete the "bin" and "obj" directories.
Once you're done, rename the folder "HelloWorld.ui" to the new project name.
Open the renamed solutions file with a text editor such as Notepad or Notepad++ and edit the following line:
Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "HelloWorld.ui", "HelloWorld.ui\HelloWorld.ui.csproj", "{39FC65A3-3AE7-4EC9-B8F7-74F971636C70}"
Replace all the instances of "HelloWorld.ui" the new name that you've selected for your project, in this case "Section1to5.ui". This changes the path of the project to the renamed directory in step 6.
Open the solutions file with visual studio, and clean and rebuild the project.
You may notice that the "Debug/Run" button has been replaced by the "Attach" button. If this happens, simply right click on the project and choose the "Set as StartUp project" option. Alternatively, click on Tools>Customize>Commands>Add command>Debug and add the button.
You're done renaming the project, if you have any doubts feel free to post and I'd be glad to help out!
2021 Update:
renameproject made this effortless. A simple CLI tool to use, it even creates a git commit on success.
https://github.com/ModernRonin/ProjectRenamer
Old answer:
I've used the Visual Studio extension "Full Rename Project" to successfully rename projects in an ASP.NET Core 2 solution.
I used ReSharper then to adjust the namespace (right click on project, refactor, adjust namespaces...)
https://github.com/kuanysh-nabiyev/RenameProjectVsExtension
Delete your bin and obj subfolders to remove a load of incorrect reference then use windows to search for old name.
Edit any code or xml files found and rebuild, should be ok now.
Remove/add project file method
This method is entirely aimed at renaming the directory for the project, as viewed in Windows Explorer.
Backup your entire project using something like GIT, SVN, or WinZip (important!).
Within the solution in Visual Studio, remove the project.
Rename the directory in Windows Explorer.
Add the project back in again within Visual Studio.
Advantages
You can make the directory within Windows Explorer match the project name within the solution.
Disadvantages
If you remove a library, it removes any references to the said library from other projects. The solution may not compile after this until you add the references to said library back in (this is quite easy). This is the reason why step 1 (backup) is so important.
If you have source control, you will lose the history of the file.
Right-clicking on a project and selecting "Open Folder in Windows Explorer" is useful to keep track of where the project is stored while you are performing this process.
I tried the Visual Studio Project Renamer, but, it threw exceptions in the few cases where I tried it.
I have had good success with CopyWiz.
I am in no way affiliated with them, and I have not yet paid for it, but I may have to soon, as it is the only tool that seems to work for both my C# and C++ projects. I do hope they make a little money, and continue to improve it, though.
Using the "Find in Files" function of Notepad++ worked fine for me (ctrl + H, Find in Files).
http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v6.2.2.html
You can:
click file-> new ->create project from existing project
select your original file, eg. solution 1 and input the new file name solution 2
change the project name in the new solution 2
If you are Creating a Website in Visual Studio 2010. You can change the project name as follows.
Step 1: In Visual Studio 2010 the SLN file will be stored under project folder within Visual studio 2010 and Source files are stored under Website folder within Visual Studio 2010.
Step 2: Rename the folder by right click on that folder forward by Rename which contains your SLN project.
Step 3: Rename the SLN file name by right click on that SLN file forward by Rename.
Step 4: Rename the folder that contains Source of that SLN file under Website in Visual Studio 2010.
Step 5: Then finally Double click Your SLN file and change the root of your SLN source folder.
I'm new to VS. I just had that same problem: Needed to rename an started project after a couple weeks work. This what I did and it worked.
Just in case, make a backup of your folder Project, although you won't
be touching it, but just in case!
Create a new project and save it using the name you wish for your 'new'
project, meaning the name you want to change your 'old' project to.
Build it. After that you'll have a Project with the name you wanted but
that it does not anything at all but open a window (a Windows Form App in
my case).
With the new proyect opened, click on Project->Add Existing Ítem and using
Windows Explorer locate your 'old' folder Project and select all the files
under ...Visual Studio xxx\Projects\oldApp\oldApp
Select all files in there (.vb, .resx) and add them to your 'new' Project
(the one that should be already opened).
Almost last step would be to open your Project file using the Solution
Explorer and in the 1st tab change the default startup form to the form
it should be.
Rebuild everything.
Maybe more steps but less or no typing at all, just some mouse clicks. Hope
it helps :)
If you have problems with loading Shared projects, like Xamarin, remember to change reference to shared libs in csproj files. I developed a CocosSharp game and Droid/iOS/WP81 projects didn't want to load. I had to change the line below in every csproj file (Driod/iOS/WP81) which referenced Shared lib. That was caused because of folder names change, so replace YOUR_PREVIOUS_NAMESPACE with your new names of folders.
<Import Project="..\YOUR_PREVIOUS_NAMESPACE.Shared\EmptyProject.Shared.projitems" Label="Shared" />
Also, I noticed that for .Driod projects, assembly name in project properties cannot be changed using Visual Studio (I use 2015). I had to change assembly name manually in the .Droid.csproj file.
<AssemblyName>YourNameSpace</AssemblyName>
Then I loaded solution and in project properties view new name appeared. After rebuilding dll with that name was generated.
The only solution which works for me on Visual Studio 2013 in a WEB project:
Lets say I want to rename "project1" to be "project2".
Lets say the physical path to my .sln file is:
c:\my\path\project1\project1.sln
so the path to my .csproj file as well as the bin and the obj folders should be:
c:\my\path\project1\project1\
Open the solution in VS by double clicking the project1.sln file.
In Solution Explorer, right-click the project (NOT the solution!!!), select Rename, and enter a new name.
In Solution Explorer, right-click the project and select Properties. On the Application tab, change the "Assembly name" and "Default namespace".
In the main CS file (or any other code files like Global.asax for example), rename the namespace declaration to use the new name. For this right-click the namespace and select Refactor > Rename enter a new name. For example:
namespace project1
4.1 In Solution Explorer, right-click the project (NOT the solution!!!), select Rename, and enter a new name.
Make sure: the AssemblyTitle and AssemblyProduct in Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs are set to the new name ("project2").
1
[assembly: AssemblyTitle("New Name Here")]
2
[assembly: AssemblyDescription("")]
3
[assembly: AssemblyConfiguration("")]
4
[assembly: AssemblyCompany("")]
5
[assembly: AssemblyProduct("New Name Here")]
6
[assembly: AssemblyCopyright("Copyright © 2013")]
7
[assembly: AssemblyTrademark("")]
8
[assembly: AssemblyCulture("")]
Close the Visual Studio.
Delete bin and obj directories physically.
Rename the parent folder and the source folder to the new name (project2):
In the example:
c:\my\path\project1\project1
will be:
c:\my\path\project2\project2
Rename the SLN file name by right click on that SLN file forward by Rename.
Then finally open the SLN file (within notepad or any editor) and copy and replace (Ctrl+h) any old name to the new name.
Open VS and click BUILD -> Clean Solution
click Build -> Build solution and then F5 to run...
Note1: If you get something like this: Compilation Error
CS0246: The type or namespace name 'project2' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)
Source File: c:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp\Temporary ASP.NET Files\root\78dd917f\d0836ce4\App_Web_index.cshtml.a8d08dba.b0mwjmih.0.cs
Then go to the "Temporary ASP.NET Files" folder and delete everything.
Note2: If you are trying to do "save as" to a new named project and to keep also the old one, consider duplicating your db by modifying the connectionStrings in web.config and also by re-starting migrations if you have one in the project.
I have followed https://gist.github.com/n3dst4/b932117f3453cc6c56be link and I was able to renamed my entire solution successfully.
along with answer of this link
https://stackoverflow.com/a/19844531/6767365
rename these files.
I renamed my project to MvcMovie and it works fine
If, after following the suggested solution, you have managed to have a new solution renamed (suppose from www.oldsite.com to www.newsite.com), but still have the old Web Site project name because you have an old "ASP.Net Web Site", then follow this additional steps (suppose from project1 to project2).
install and old Visual Studio 2017
open the project with it, right click on the project -> add -> new project.
Select "Installed -> Visual C# -> Web -> Previous Versions -> ASP.NET Empty Web Site" and name it "www.newsite.com"
Move all the files and folders from Visual Studio 2017, from oldsite to newsite until the oldsite remains empty.
Right click on "www.oldsite.com" and remove it.
You can now save everything now and open it back again with Visual Studio 2022. All this is needed only because VS2019/VS2020 do not support "old" ASP.Net Web Site creation, but only editing.
If you want to rename the solution, you can follow the steps below.
Backup.First things first, make sure to always create a backup file.Simply copy your project to a different directory.
In Solution Explorer, right-click the project, select Rename, and enter a new name.
In Solution Explorer, right-click the project and select Properties. On the Application tab, change the "Assembly name" and "Default namespace".
Open any .cs and rename all namespace
Change the AssemblyTitle and AssemblyProduct in Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs.
Delete bin and obj directories physically.
Rename the project physical folder directory.
Open the Sln file (within notepad or any editor) and change the path to the project.
Cleans and Rebuild the project
Details ...https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1028483/rename-solution-and-related-projects-in-a-aspnet-w.html
To rename a website:
http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/Blogs/46334/rename-website-project-in-visual-studio-2013.aspx
locate and edit IISExpress's applicationhost.config, found here:
C:\Users{username}\Documents\IISExpress\config