Converting VS2012 Solution to VS2010 - visual-studio-2010

I'm working in VB project with VS 2012 and after finish I try to add setup project.
I didn't find it (because the Setup Project was discontinued after VS2010) so I switched to VS2010 but the problem is the project wont open and I get this message:
The selected file is a solution file but was created by a newer
version of this application and cannot be opened.
I tried this article : http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/80953/Converting-VS2010-Solution-to-VS2008
and tried to convert from 2012 to 2010 but same message appears.

Open you solution file in notepad. Make 2 changes
Replace "Format Version 12.00" with "Format Version 11.00" (without quotes.)
Replace "# Visual Studio 2012" with "# Visual Studio 2010" (without quotes.)

Just to elaborate on Bhavin's excellent answer - editing the solution file works but you may still get the incompatible error (as David reported) if you had .NET 4.5 selected as the default .NET version in your VS2012 project and your VS2010 enviroment doesn't support that.
To quickly fix that, open the VS2012 .csproj file in a text editor and change the TargetFrameworkVersion down to 4.0 (from 4.5). VS2010 will then happily load the "edited" solution and projects.
You'll also have to edit an app.config files that have references to .NET 4.5 in a similar way to allow them to run on a .NET 4.0 environment.

I had a similar problem and none of the solutions above worked, so I went with an old standby that always works:
Rename the folder containing the project
Make a brand new project with the same name with 2010
Diff the two folders and->
Copy all source files directly
Ignore bin/debug/release etc
Diff the .csproj and copy over all lines that are relevant.
If the .sln file only has one project, ignore it. If it's complex, then diff it as well.
That almost always works if you've spent 10 minutes at it and can't get it.
Note that for similar problems with older versions (2008, 2005) you can usually get away with just changing the version in the .csproj and either changing the version in the .sln or discarding it, but this doesn't seem to work for 2013.

the simplest solution is.....open your website in vs2013 and go to Debug->WebsiteProperties (last option) a new window will open..
in this window go to "Build" option and change .net framework version from 4.5 to 4.0.....then select ok.
[note: this step will only work if your project does not have dependencies with vs2013...]
Now open your website in vs2010

Open the project file and not the solution. The project will be converted by the Wizard, and after converted, when you build the project, a new Solution will be generated as a VS2010 one.

Solution of VS2010 is supported by VS2012.
Solution of VS2012 isn't supported by VS2010
--> one-way upgrade only.
VS2012 doesn't support setup projects.
Find here more about VS2010/VS2012 compatibility: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh266747(v=vs.110).aspx

Simple solution which worked for me.
Install Vim editor for windows.
Open VS 2012 project solution using Vim editor and modify the version targetting Visual studio solution 10.
Open solution with Visual studio 2010.. and continue with your work ;)

Related

Can open MVC4 solution in VS2010, but not in VS2012

Looked through some similar questions, could not find one that fits my case.
I have a solution that I created some time ago in VS 2010 (maybe originally in MVC2), and eventually upgraded to MVC4.
The solution works properly when opened with VS 2010, builds and runs - everything as expected.
To confirm that I use MVC4, I checked the properties of my System.Web.Mvc.dll. It appears to be 4.0.0.0
From this I assume that I have MVC4 successfully installed on the machine.
However, when I try to open the solution with VS 2012 I get the following infamous error
Full text:
Unsupported This version of Visual Studio does not have the following
project types installed or does not support them. You can still open
these projects in the version of Visual Studio in which they were
originally created.
- Recipes, "C:\ ... Copy\Recipes\Recipes.csproj"
I can also create a new MVC4 project using VS 2012, so I'm assuming I don't lack any tools VS 2012 needs.
What else could be the problem?
There's probably an entry in the <ProjectTypeGuids> element of the .csproj file that VS2012 doesn't recognize. I have a vague recollection there was some tooling identifier change but I can't recall specifically.
My suggestion would be to create a new project from scratch and then compare the <ProjectTypeGuids> elements in each .csproj file to try to figure out which one from the VS2010 project it doesn't like in VS2012. It's likely going to require some trial-and-error tweaking of the list so make a backup of the file first so you don't get yourself into a situation where you can't open it at all.
If you don't want to take that approach another option would be to create a new empty project and then import the individual files from the old project into the new, but that could obviously be quite time-consuming if it's a large project.

"This project is incompatible with the current version of Visual Studio"

I was getting the below message from Visual Studio 2010.
"This project is incompatible with the current version of Visual Studio"
One situation resulting in this error has already been posted here at Stackoverflow, but that question has been closed. I'm thinking it's a fairly generic problem. Since I have found a "solution", I'll post this question, and my solution as an answer.
If the message
This project is incompatible with the current version of Visual Studio
is due to an attempt to open a project targeting .Net 4.5, then the "solution" or workaround is to edit the .csproj file and change the TargetFrameworkVersion from "v4.5" to "v4.0". That at least allows the project to be loaded, although it may result in compiler errors if the program is dependent on 4.5 features.
VS 2012 has different project type support based on what you install at setup time and which edition you have. Certain options are available, e.g. web development tools, database development tools, etc. So if you're trying to open a web project but the web development tools weren't installed, it complains with this message.
This can happen if you create the project on another machine and try to open it on a new one. I figured it out trying to open an MVC project after I accidentally uninstalled the web tools.
I just got the same error message with a couple projects after installing Visual Studio 2015 Update 3. For me, the solution was to install .NET Core
In my case it was an incompatible Project Type. Editing project file and removing ProjectTypeGuids node resolved the issue of loading the project (I had already re-targeted the framework version as advised here).
Probably the project type is not supported in the (most likely) NEW version of VS, so you will have to adjust (update) the code to work properly (if possible), but at least you can see the content through VS.
I Resolved the issue by deleting the files in the below folder
%localappdata%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0\ComponentModelCache
Source: https://forums.xamarin.com/discussion/70388/how-to-fix-incompatible-issue-after-visual-studio-2015-update-3
As for me, I realized there was another web project in the solution that my VS2017 was loading fine, so I copied over the ProjectTypeGuids element of it over to the project that wasn't loading. Its diff was:
- <ProjectTypeGuids>{E3E379DF-F4C6-4180-9B81-6769533ABE47};{349c5851-65df-11da-9384-00065b846f21};{fae04ec0-301f-11d3-bf4b-00c04f79efbc}</ProjectTypeGuids>
+ <ProjectTypeGuids>{349c5851-65df-11da-9384-00065b846f21};{fae04ec0-301f-11d3-bf4b-00c04f79efbc}</ProjectTypeGuids>
After this, it loads. Don't ask me why.
If you are getting the same error for a project which is actually an extension (.vsix), installing Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 SDK does the trick.
Go to tools -> Extensions and updates -> Online -> Search for project installer -> download
And relaunch Visual studio.
After installing Update 3 for Visual Studio 2015, I suddenly got the "This project is incompatible with the current version of Visual Studio" error message while opening my Cordova project (.jsproj Javascript project file)
To solve this:
Go to Programs & Features
Select the Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 installation and click Change
Click Modify
Install "HTML/Javascript (Apache Cordova) Update 10" of the Cross Platform Mobile Development section
For me, I got this same error in VS 2015 and just installed the VS 2015 update 1, though from another answer, VS is actually up to Update 3, now (after which, they got the error and had to install .NET Core). Had issues when it hit certain packages, like the Windows SDK ones, and had to point the installer back at the paths in my original CD, and for some, even that didn't work and had to skip them and re-download from an internet-connected computer, transfer them over, and run them later manually (computer was not connected to the internet to be able to download updated versions of the packages), but after doing all that and doing a reboot, the error was gone and my project loaded fine.
I had this issue and after hours of uninstalling and reinstalling I found out the issue in my instance.
The reason why I got this was down to the fact that I didn't have the correct extension.
In my case the ASP.net project (my startup) was the incompatible project and this was because I didn't have the following:
Microsoft ASP.NET and Web Tools
Micrsoft ASP.NET Web Frameworks and Tools
It was a simple case of going into extensions and updates under the Tools menu
I had this error and found it was due to the presence an 'Import' XML tag inside the .csproj.user file. Once I removed it, Visual Studio could open the project again.
What most people forget it is that the files of visual studio are just text files, that have some peculiars configurations that will show to the program how to open it. that is, we can change this because it's just a text in some file in there in your project folders.
Well, knowing this, what we have to do is very simple!
The first step is knowing what kind of project it is this project that stay unload. (for example: Class Library)
The Second step is create a new one (Class Library) because you know that your visual studio will create a version supported by himself. Unload this one and click in "Edit csproj".
It's in this file that we can found the configuration that tell to VS how this proj will be loaded and his name is ProjectGuid, this serial number has a variation according the type and version of project.
Now, look at your "ok project", copy the "ProjectGuid" TAG, paste on csproj that unloaded, and pay attention to the little differences and make this files almost equals, except for the tags ItemGroup that represent the references of the project.
Doing that, save all files and close your VS and open again, now your project should load normally.
I hope that this informations help somebody to understand a bit more how the VS works and help solve the problems when necessary.
I checked if i could create a new solution and was unable because SSAS,SSIS and SSRS weren't there as options.
I downloaded SSDT from here and installed and it worked...
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/ssdt/download-sql-server-data-tools-ssdt?view=sql-server-2017
In case you came here looking for the issue with ".smproj" file, it is because you are missing SQL Server Analysis Services(SSAS). To over come this, install SQL Server Data Tools(SSDT) in your system, restart your Visual Studio and it will work.
Thanks.
This is my answer, I think it's useful. Please follow below steps:
1.First check your Visual studio version is 2012, 2015 or 2017 etc.
2.Your project is developed in 2015, but your visual studio 2012, then visual studio 2012 should not open the which are developed in visual studio 2015 projects.
3.If developed project visual studio 2012 and you have visual studio 2012, open the project but here need to check one option as per below
a) Target Framework - Open your project ".csproj" file with notepad++ and search with "TargetFrameworkVersion" and observe target framework value.
b) Open any existing project in your visual studio - Select project at 'Solution Explorer' - Right click - Properties - Application -Select Target Framework - Observe highest your framework which you have
c) 3.a and 3.b frameworks both are should same otherwise applications are not open
d)If your target framework less than the project framework should install the latest's
e) above options do not work just Simply have another option modify the "TargetFrameworkVersion" value in '.csproj' file which is have in your visual studio.
Ex: in my visual studio target framework 4.0 but in '.csproj' file have TargetFrameworkVersion - 4.5, You need just change 4.5 to 4.0 and open the project
This issue might be caused when using VS 2015 with Update 3 installed on one PC and without update 3 installed on another. This was the problem in my case.

Visual Studio 2010 (beta 2) solution in Visual Studio 2008

Is there a way to open a solution-file saved in Visual studio 2010 beta 2 in Visual studio 2008?
... or maybe a way to convert it?
When i tried to open it in VS 2008 i get an error saying "The selected file is a solution file, but was created by a newer version of this application and cannot be opened."
If you open up the .csproj file in a text editor (it's just XML) you'll see a line like:
<ProductVersion>9.0.30729</ProductVersion>
(this is from a VS 2008 project)
The first line of a 2008 .sln file reads as follows:
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 10.00
The 2010 version numbers will be different - just change them to these values (or the ones you get from creating a new 2008 project on your system).
Just take a backup of the files first.
It is not a supported scenario to open a .sln file created with 2010 in 2008. This is true for trying to open any .sln file saved in a newer version of Visual Studio with an older one.
What you can do is open up the .sln file in notepad and decrement the version number by 1. This will allow you to open the .sln file but the operation will still likely fail as you'll have to convert all of the projects as well.
I fought with this very problem today. What I did was create a VS2008 project and simply added in the files from the other project. Most code written in 2010 really doesn't use 2010 features--at least for the code I was looking at it imported the files without any problems.
Visual Studio's project and solution files are plain text.
You need to open the .sln and .csproj files in a text editor, compare the VS2010 versions to VS2008 versions, and modify the version numbers to match.
You'd have to compare the .sln and .*proj files schemas between the versions. I know that the structure is dramatically different from 2003 to 2008. In the end, you are better off creating a new project and copying the files over between the two
Why not create a new VS2008 solution manually and add in the source code instead of hacking at the .sln file. Remember VS2010 is early beta and not ready and the timeline for release has been pushed back due to the growing number of people complaining about it.
Hope this helps,
Best regards,
Tom.
While what other users have stated is true, if the project contains or (may not be 100% exact but look for something along those lines)
You will need to remove them as the syntax for 3.5 client, and 4.0 client is different in VS2010, than in 2008.

Why does one of my project's GUIDs change when I build the project in VS 2005?

For two of my VS 2005 C++ projects, VS wants to write to the .sln file when I build the projects. I have got a number of other VS 2005 C++ projects where this is not the case. It is a problem as due to the fact that we have ClearCase source control integrated with our VS 2005 installations and when we try and run an overnight build via batch files, the build pauses as a ClearCase check out dialog box is displayed.
Looking at what VS is changing in the .sln files, it is the second GUID on the project line.
Before building:
Project("{8BC9CEB8-8B4A-11D0-8D11-00A0C91BC942}") = "InterCommClientB", "InterCommClientB.vcproj", "{A2AF232A-7F27-4340-81D5-8ABFD10994D2}"
After building:
Project("{8BC9CEB8-8B4A-11D0-8D11-00A0C91BC942}") = "InterCommClientB", "InterCommClientB.vcproj", "{67BE85B7-3234-484E-88FB-4F0E42096583}"
Any help gratefully received. I am new to VS 2005, as we have only recently migrated from VC++ 6.0, so apologies if I have missed something obvious.
We are running VS 2005 Professional Edition, with SP1 installed.
Regards,
Greg.
I had similar problem. It seems that when converting projects from old versions of VS (like 6 or 2003) VS 2010 is not adding Project GUID to the .vcxproj file. Because of that when you open solution including such project VS will recreate GUID for such project, and will change .sln file but will not change .vcxproj file. So another time you open such solution the situation will be the same and the .sln file may change again.
See this: http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/586258/missing-projectguid-in-vcxproj-files
I am guessing here, but it looks like some changes have been made to the InterCommClientB project(project, not the files in the project). When this happens the sln is updated, in this case only the project GUID.
My best guess to resolve this issue would be to manually build the solution and then checkin the changes. This way the sln file won't change on build.
My second best guess is that you already made this changes at your computer and it is working fine, but you did not get lattest version on the pc where you do the night build .
This might be totally out there - but sometimes Visual Studio fails to check-in a Solution file when it's been modified and while the Solution is open in Visual Studio. Try closing Visual Studio, and only then committing the Solution file.
If it isn't that, there might be some other agency causing the Solution file to need to change the GUIDs its using. In one instance, I was using .NET tools from National Instruments, and they has a licensing scheme that would trigger that sort of action (modification of extraneous files for not good reason) whenever I went to do a rebuild.
Please take a careful look at the output from the build (in the log, or the output window) - you may find some further clues there!

Developers with VS 2005 and VS 2008 working on the same project(s)

We have a solution that has a website and a class library. We also have developers working in VS 2005 and VS 2008. The issue is when a user adds a file/removes a file from the class library it doesn't get added to the project file for the user(s) using the other version of VS. Also I had to setup our automated build to use one project file. Is there a way to work around this or do we need to upgrade everyone to 2008?
Working with two different version of Visual Studio in a team of more than one project member absolutely makes no sense. I recommend to downgrade to Visual Studio 2005 or upgrade to Visual Studio 2008. You can install several versions of Visual Studio on the same machine with no side effects.
You will need to keep each solution file on the same visual studio version. It's ok to split up your product into several solutions though. In this case you may have 1 .sln file that holds your 2005 projects and 1 .sln that holds your 2008 projects.
As you mentioned there is no automatic way to keep a 2005 and a 2008 project in sync, because when you add a file to one of the projects, the other one won't have that new file. Likewise when you remove files.
Maybe you should downgrade to VS 2005 - since I'm working now on a project using VS08 and every now and then the paths of the referenced dlls get mixed up and the dlls are lost - or we have the same problem you just described that files that were added from one user are not in the project file for the next one after an update.
I'm not sure about "Web Site" (rather than "Web Application") projects, but generally you don't need different project files for 2005 and 2008. You only need separate solution files.
Just open your 2005 project in 2008 and allow it to upgrade your solution/projects. You may get a dialog asking you to update CLR versions, just say no.
Once you've got a working 2008 solution, copy the *.sln file to another name (I call my copy *.2005.sln), open the copied *.sln file in notepad, or your favourite text editor. Find "Format Version 10.0" on the 2nd line, and change to "Format Version 9.0". Save the file.
That's it, your upgraded solution file works in VS 2008, and the one you copied and changed works in VS 2005.
There's one extra step if you've got Web Application Projects. In the Web Application's vbproj or csproj file, find the line:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v9.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplications.targets" Condition="" />
and replace that one line with these two:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v8.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplications.targets" Condition="'$(Solutions.VSVersion)' == '8.0'" />
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v9.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplications.targets" Condition="'$(Solutions.VSVersion)' == '9.0'" />
Those two lines will conditionally select the correct MSBuild path depending on the version of VS used.

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