I downloaded the Visual Studio 11 Beta last night and started work on a new project, only thing is now I can't open the project with Visual Studio 2010, does anyone know away round this or a way to save the project in the Beta to be compatible with "older versions", I have looked and tried but as of yet failed?
Just open the solution in a text editor
in the second line you can find
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 12.00
change the version to 11.00 and save it.
Try to open the solution and it works.
Update: the original answer was wrong. Unlike the version of Visual Studio, the format version has diverged over time. Check it yourself. The correct version number for VS 2010 solutions is 11.00, not 10.00 as was originally stated above.
I also could not open the VS11 project in VS10 – with error message "The selected file is a solution file, but was created by a newer version of this application and cannot be opened".
It helped to change the version number on the first line of .sln file (replace the "Format Version 12.00" with "Format Version 11.00")
I've seen this a number of times at work recently. You need to install Visual Studio 2010 SP1 to resolve this.
Related
How to convert Visual Studio 2015 solution (.sln) to Visual Studio 2017.
In the past, when a solution from a previous version was opened in the newer VS there was a wizard doing the conversion, but it seems it's not the case in with these versions.
Edit the .sln file with a text editor like notepad. Change the first 3 lines to
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 12.00
# Visual Studio 15
The first line is empty.
When you save the changes, the icon of the .sln file is changed and the solution will be opened by VS 2017 when double-clicked.
I cannot find Retarget Solution.
What I did instead:
Open the solution file using Visual Studio 2017
Select the solution file in Solution Explorer.
Type Ctrl-S
Actually I got the idea from here:
Upgrade Visual Studio 2013 solutions to Visual Studio 2015
open solution(sln) with vs2017
if prompt 'Retarget Project ...' click ok and done!
else in Solution Explorer > right click on solution name
select 'Retarget Solution'
5. select last version sdk and click ok and done!
In my case, I've searched and applied all solutions.
Installed netcore 2.1 x86 x64
Reinstalled VS2017
What was the solution?
There was a global.json next to the solution and it contained an sdk parameter, I changed it to 2.1.413 (the latest as of today 25/10), and it now compiles!!!
I used Visual Studio 2010 to develop a web application. I formatted my machine and installed Visual Studio 2010 Professional. When I try to open old projects, 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.
I do not remember the version of visual studio 2010 I used the first time.
Can anyone tell me which version came after the professional edition?
Make sure VS2010 is updated to the latest service pack, otherwise check to see if the project was actually made in VS2012/13 in which case you will need to create a new VS2010 solution and rebuild it from your existing projects.
Open the .sln file in a text editor. In the beginning there is a marker which tells the VS version it is meant for. For VS 2010 it should look like that:
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 11.00
# Visual Studio 2010
You should be able to change these values without any problems. As far as I know the file format did not change.
EDIT
Considering the comment of Dumisani: of course you need to target .net 4.0 and make sure no features of .net 4.5 are used!
Chances are you had a service pack installed that you are missing with a clean installation.
I edited my project (which was written in school using Visual Studio 2008) at home using Visual Studio 2010 Express. When I got back to school, I couldn't open my solution anymore as Visual Studio 2008 told me that the file was created with a newer version of Visual Studio. I asked my professor for help and he edited something in the assembly information of the solution and voila, I could open, run, edit it again as nothing ever happened.
However, I forgot what he did with the assembly information. Does anyone here know what he could have done? or is this approach not advisable?
At the top of the .sln file there would be a line:
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 11.00
If you change the version to 10.00, it would correspond to Visual Studio 2008. Use any text editor for this.
The file format has not changed in between these versions (nor has it for Visual Studio 2012).
Edit the .sln file in Notepad and find the version number (11.0) on the first or second line. Change it to 10.0, save the file, and you should be good to go.
For extensions like .sln or .csproj, the default application is Microsoft Visual Studio Version Selector. I've got two versions installed, 2010 SP1 and 2012 RC. How exactly will this application decide which VS to launch?
I would say that it works like this:
If it finds any hint in the given file which version should be used, then it uses it. For example, at the top of .sln files there is something like this so the Version Selector can decide:
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 12.00
# Visual Studio 2010
If it doesn't find any hint it will use whichever version was later installed (in my case I reinstalled 2010 SP1 after 2012 was already installed on my PC and now I think that VS2010 is opened more often than 2012 but am not 100% sure).
This is my feeling but what are the exact rules?
There are some version info in the file header. Otherwise it would not be possible for the file explorer to display different document icon on the .sln file with a number:
representing .sln files for VS versions 2008/2010/2012/2013/2015/2017/2019/2022
This number on the icon disappears if you edit the .sln file with notepad or some other text editor that does not preserve the UTF-8 signature (see comment by Paul Groke). In this case also the version selector cannot choose the right version, and you cannot open it from the file explorer. You can specifically open it from within Visual Studio and save the .sln file to fix it. Also see this for more on this issue.
The .sln file must be a UTF-8-BOM file and it must start like this:
[blank line]
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version XX.XX[XXX...]
[description]
The [description] is for example # Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Desktop for VS 2012 or # Visual Studio 15 for VS 2017.
The second line is case sensitive but the third line (description) is not. If it is missing, the Selector seems to start the latest VS.
The VisualStudioVersion entry is ignored.
However, for the right file icon to be displayed, the [description] has to be exact and case sensitive.
Open your solution in the right Visual Studio version. Click to select the solution. Click File --> Save xxx.sln.
I am trying to open a solution file in source safe 6.0d in Visual Studio 2005 (no service packs installed) and I get the Conversion Wizard saying it was created in a previous version.
So I try to open it up in 2003 sp1 and it says it was created with a newer version of visual studio?
Is there a way to tell what version of Visual Studio is in Source Safe?
Any ideas?
Look in the .sln file. Starting with VS2005, the second line has an identifying tag, such as '# Visual Studio 2005'
Each project file also has a 'ProductVersion' attribute. My guess would be that some projects within the solution have already been converted to a newer version.