Mar 13, 2019 I use this approach: Move the project folder. If the project is in source control, do the move using source control commands. Edit the solution file in a text editor. There should be only one path that you need to change.
The whole topic of projects, solutions, and the files and tools that control them is something that is seldom explained.
Throwing Food
One of the big advantages of the way Microsoft has designed solutions and projects is that a project or solution is self-contained. A solution directory and its contents can be moved, copied, or deleted in Windows Explorer. A whole team of programmers can share one solution (.sln) file; a whole set of projects can be part of the same solution, and the settings and options in that .sln file can apply to all of the projects in it. Only one solution can be open at one time in Visual Studio, but a lot of projects can be in that solution. The projects can even be in different languages.
You can get a better understanding of just what a solution is by creating a few and looking at the result. A 'Blank solution' results in a single folder with just two files: the solution container and the solution user options. If you use the default name, you'll see:
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The main reason you can create a blank solution is to allow project files to be created independently and included in the solution. In large, complex systems, in addition to being part of several solutions, projects can even be nested in hierarchies.
The solution container file, interestingly, is one of the few text configuration files that isn't in XML. A blank solution contains these statements:
It might as well be XML... it's organized just like XML but without the XML syntax. Since this is just a text file, it's possible to edit it in a text editor like Notepad. For example, you can change HideSolutionNode = FALSE to TRUE and solution won't be shown in Solution Explorer anymore. (The name in Visual Studio changes to 'Project Explorer' too.) It's fine to experiment with things like this as long as you're working on a strictly experimental project. You should never change configuration files manually for a real system unless you know exactly what you're doing, but it's fairly common in advanced environments to update the .sln file directly rather than through Visual Studio.
The .suo file is hidden and it's a binary file so it can't be edited like the .sln file. You will normally only change this file using the menu options in Visual Studio. Moving up in complexity, check out a Windows Forms Application. Even though this might be the most elementary application, there are a lot more files.
In addition to a .sln file, the Windows Forms Application template also automatically creates a .vbproj file. Although the .sln and .vbproj files often useful, you might notice that they're not shown in the Visual Studio Solution Explorer window, even with the 'Show All Files' button clicked. If you need to work with these files directly, you have to do it outside of Visual Studio.
Not all applications need a .vbproj file. For example, if you select 'New Web Site' in Visual Studio, no .vbproj file will be created. Open the top level folder in Windows for the Windows Forms Application and you'll see the four files that Visual Studio doesn't show. ssuming the default name again, they are: The .sln and the .vbproj files can be useful for debugging difficult problems. There's no harm in looking at them and these files tell you what is really going on in your code.
As we have seen, you can also edit .sln and .vbproj files directly although it's usually a bad idea unless there is no other way to do what you need. But sometimes, there is no other way. For example, if your computer is running in 64-bit mode, there isn't a way to target a 32-bit CPU in VB.NET Express, for example, to be compatible with the 32-bit Access Jet database engine. (Visual Studio provides a way in the other versions), but you can add the following:
To the elements<propertygroup.. .=:l' '='> in the .vbproj files to get the job done. Both the .sln and .vbproj file types are normally associated with Visual Studio in Windows. That means that if you double-click either of them, Visual Studio opens. If you double-click a solution, the projects in the .sln file are opened. If you double-click a .vbproj file and there is no .sln file (this happens if you add a new project to an existing solution) then one is created for that project.
My current solution for renaming the project folder is:
- Remove the project from the solution.
- Rename the folder outside Visual Studio.
- Re-add the project to the solution.
Is there any better way?
andersjanmyrandersjanmyr
32 Answers
12 next
TFS users: If you are using source control that requires you to warn it before your rename files/folders then look at this answer instead which covers the extra steps required.
To rename a project's folder, file (
.*proj
) and display name in visual studio:- Close the solution.
- Rename the folder(s) outside Visual Studio. (Rename in TFS if using source control)
- Open the solution, ignoring the warnings (answer 'no' if asked to load a project from source control).
- Go through all the unavailable projects and...
- Open the properties window for the project (highlight the project and press Alt+Enter or F4, or right-click > properties).
- Set the property 'File Path' to the new location.
- If the property is not editable (as in VS2012), then open the
.sln
file directly in another editor such as Notepad++ and update the paths there instead. (You may need to check-out the solution first in TFS etc.)
- If the property is not editable (as in VS2012), then open the
- Reload the project - right-click > reload project.
- Change the display name of the project, by highlighting it and pressing F2, or right-click >rename.
Note: Other suggested solutions that involve removing and then re-adding the project to the solution will break project references.
If you perform these steps then you might also consider renaming the following to match:
- Assembly
- Default/Root Namespace
- Namespace of existing files (use the refactor tools in Visual Studio or ReSharper's inconsistent namespaces tool)
Also consider modifying the values of the following assembly attributes:
AssemblyProductAttribute
AssemblyDescriptionAttribute
AssemblyTitleAttribute
There is another way doing this, using the *.sol, *csproj files.
- open your solution file
- search for the *.csproj you would like to change
- it will be like this (relative to the *.sol file):
Project('{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}') = 'Shani.Commands.Impl', 'Shani.Commands.ImplShani.Commands.Impl.csproj', '{747CFA4B-FC83-419A-858E-5E2DE2B948EE}'
- and just change the first part to the new diretory for example:
ImplShani.Commands.ImplShani.Commands.Impl.csproj
- of course don't forget to move the whole project to that directory
Have fun.
rabashanirabashani
This is straight forward in VS 2015 (possibly works in older versions)
- In Solution Explorer, right click on
Main solution > Rename
- In Solution Explorer, right click on
project (under solution) > Rename
- In Solution Explorer, double click, or right click on
Properties >
goto Application Tab, renameAssembly name
andDefault namespace
to match. - If you wish to also rename the namespace, Open one of your class files. Right click the
namespace > Rename...
this should search and replace all references to your namespace throughout the project. - Close the project > rename the
project folder
. - Edit
.sln
file in notepad, change the path to the cjproj. iefubar.csproj --> barbar.csproj
wired00wired00
Man, have I struggled with this. Unfortunately there isn't a one click solution in Visual Studio, but if you're running Visual Studio 2012 and your project is under source control with Team Foundation Server, here is how I got it to work, while keeping the source history:
(Make sure you read @mjv's comment below, as he notes that you can skip step 5-10)
- Make sure you have checked in all changes, so you have no pending changes.
- Remove the project from the solution, by right clicking and selecting Remove.
- Now, in Windows Explorer, rename the project folder.
- Go back to Visual Studio, and in Solution Explorer, right click the solution and choose Add ->Existing project. Select the project file for the project you removed in step 2, which should be located in the renamed folder.
- Now the project is back in the solution, but the project doesn't seem to be added to source control. To fix that, open Source Control Explorer.
- Find the project folder in Source Control Explorer, that corresponds with the project folder on your disk, that you renamed in step 3.
- Rename the folder in Source Control Explorer, so it has the same name as the project folder on disk.
- Now take a look at your pending changes. You should have changes to the solution file and a rename operation on the project folder.
- Do a rebuild and make sure everything compiles correctly. If you had inter-project references to the project you renamed, you need to add them again to the individual projects that referenced it.
- You should be all set now. Go and check everything in.
The above guide worked for me. If it doesn't work for you, try and delete your local solution completely, and remove the folder mapping in your workspace. Restart Visual Studio just in case. Make sure you actually deleted the whole solution from your computer. Now readd the solution mapping to your workspace and get the latest version. Now try the above steps. The same applies if something goes wrong while following the above steps. Just delete your solution locally and get the latest source, and you'll have a clean slate to work with.
If you're still having problems, make sure that you haven't changed anything manually in the solution file, or trying other 'tricks' before trying the above steps. If you have changed something and checked it in, you might want to consider doing a rollback to the point just before you started messing with the renaming of the project.
Of course, you'd also want to rename the project itself, in Solution Explorer. You can do this before the steps above, but in that case, make sure you check in that change before applying the steps above. You can also do it afterwards, but make sure you follow all the steps above first, and check in your changes before trying to rename the project name in Solution Explorer. I don't recommend trying to mix the above steps with a rename of the project name in Solution Explorer. It might work though, but I would recommand doing it in 2 separate changesets.
RenéRené
Currently, no. Well, actually you can click the broken project node and in the properties pane look for the property 'Path' then click the small browse icon and select the new path.
Voila :)
mortenbpostmortenbpost
The simpler solution is the following:
- Right-click the project and rename it.
- (optional) Open the project’s property settings and modify the assembly name (and optionally the default namespace) to use the new project name.
- (optional) Select the namespace name in a source file, right click and select RefactorRename to globally rename the namespace to the new project name.
- (optional) Open the AssemblyInfo.cs file and change the assembly name to match.
- Save and close the solution.
- Using Windows Explorer rename the project folder to the new name.
- Open the SLN file in a text editor and find the one reference to the project path and change it to use the new folder name.
There are 4 needed steps but 7 recommended. At the end of the day though the project is renamed completely. Technically, the folder name for the project doesn’t have to match the project itself, so even that step is optional, but it can be confusing if they don’t match. Same for the assembly and namespace names.
Md. Shafiqur RahmanMd. Shafiqur Rahman
In andersjanmyr's answer its easier to rename the project first.
- Rename project.
- Close the solution (save it).
- Rename the folders outside Visual Studio.
- Open the solution, ignoring the warnings.
- Go through all unavailable projects and set the property 'File Path' to the new location of your project file, i.e. someproject.csproj.
- Reload the project.
Also, after those steps are carried out you might want to rename other references to your old project name.
In project properties, update the Assembly Name and Default Namespace.This will update the following in the project file...
...and will get rid of the error 'Namespace does not correspond to file location, should be: 'SomeProjectName'
Rename your root namespace (if you have resharper right click the Namespace and go Refactor -> Rename).
Change all occurences of your old project name in AssemblyInfo.cs
CRiceCRice
For VS2017 you can use my visual studio extension
It will rename project in:
- project location folder
- solution file
- reference in other projects
- assembly name, information
- default namespace
KuanyshKuanysh
I just had to do this myself (using VS2010). As some folks have answered, the simplest step seems to be:
- Close the VS project.
- Open the .sln file and rename the project directory prefix for each of the .csproj occurrences.
- Save the .sln file
- Rename the actual project folder directory on your hard drive to match your changes in .sln file.
- Open the .sln (in VS) and rebuild
John ImJohn Im
See item 3 in linked article.
- Close the solution and the IDE.
- In Explorer: Change the directory name to the new name.
- In Explorer: Open the .sln file with a text editor.
- Change the directory name to the new name and save.
- Restart the IDE and open the solution from the File, Recent Files menu if it doesn't start automatically.
- Click on the Project folder of the Solution Explorer and check the path property in the properties at the bottom. It will now be referencing to the new project folder.
It worked for me.
Jim LewisJim Lewis
Proven solution for Visual Studio extension for Data Tools for Business Intelligence (SSDT-BI 2013):
- Move the Project folder to its new location (don't rename anything yet)
- In Solution Explorer, rename the Project / Solution.
- Close (and save) the newly-renamed project.
- Rename the project's folder and .sln file.
- Use a text editor and open the newly-renamed project solution file (.sln) (I used Notepad++)
- In line number 6 you'll see: 'Project {fdjfksdjk4387!...} = 'OLDPROJECT', 'OLDFOLDEROLDPROJECT.rptproj'. Rename everything with the new names used in step 4. (i.e. ... = 'NEWPROJECT', 'NEWFOLDERNEWPROJECT.rptproj'... )
- That's it!
Tested 100% and worked flawlessly on my case.
NOTE: Can't confirm if it works under different project templates a/o Visual Studio versions. As always, do backup everything beforehand.
user3285866user3285866
For those using Visual Studio + git and wanting to keep file history (works renaming both projects and/or solutions):
1) Close Visual Studio
2) In .gitignore file duplicate all ignore paths of project you want to rename with renamed versions of those paths.
3) Use git move command like this:
See documentation for additional options: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-mv
4) In your .sln file: Find the line defining your project and change the folder name in path. The line should look something like:
5) Open Visual Studio, right click on project -> Rename
6) Afterwards rename the namespaces.I read that resharper has some options for this. But simple find/replace did the job for me.
7) Remove old .gitignore paths
ivkeivke
@andersjanmyr's Solution: you may press Alt+Enter to bring up the Properties Page for the unavailable project and set the 'File Path' property there; since it is not available in the right-click_context-menu of the unavailable project (in VS2008).
Ujjwal SinghUjjwal Singh
I have written a small tool that automates all these steps. Also supports subversion for now.
Information about current releases can be found here Visual Studio Project Renamer Infos
Latests releases can now be downloaded from the Visual Studio Project Renamer Download Page
Feedback is much appreciated.
RazerRazer
Although this question has already been answered I wanted to share my approach to solving this problem. I often had the same problem of renaming a project in VS and editing the folder name, project name and .sln file in order to accomplish that. I just wrote a VBScript that accomplishes all that. You have to be careful with the strings you choose for replacing.
EDIT: You just have to put the .vbs file in the same directory as the .sln file of the solution.
ValkyriasValkyrias
What worked for me in 2017:
- Close solution VS
- Renamed directory of projects in solution.
- (push change in source control - git in my case)
- edit sln file in text editor (outside VS2017) changing name of directory.
- Reopen solution in VS
It said something like 're-adding project', I rebuilt everything and everything was good to go.
Charles PlagerCharles Plager
NOTE: This fix is for Visual Studio 2008, but should work here.
- Using Windows Explorer, rename both the solution folders (the parent folder and the child folder) to the new solution name.
- Delete the
.sln
file located in the parent folder. - In Visual Studio, select File|Open Project.
- Drill into the new folder you just renamed and open the .csproj file (located in the child folder).
- Right-click the project name and rename it to what you want. (Should be the same name as the folder in step 1.)
- Select File|Close Solution. A dialog will ask if you want to save changes to the
.sln
file. Click Yes. - In the Save File As dialog, point to the newly renamed PARENT folder and click save.(NOTE: Make sure the
.sln
file has the same name as the folder. Not required, but maintains consistency.)
DONE.
Robo A GoGoRobo A GoGo
When using TFS step 2 is actually to rename the folder in source control and then get the latest before reopening the solution.
Amy PattersonAmy Patterson
We recently uploaded a beta of an free VS extension which does this stuff for you.Have a look at VS Gallery: Gallery Download
user3652868user3652868
Well I did it my way
- Close Visual Studio 2012
- Rename your subdirectory to prefered name under .sln
- Delete *.suo file
- Open solution again, fix any properties of Project(s) loaded to meet new subdirectory name
agerohageroh
- Rename project in solution and the project folder
- Delete project from solution
- Add existing project to solution(your renamed project)
It works for me. TFS will also track new project.
VladVlad
Open .sln in a text file and in the following line change to your new folder nameProject('{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}') = 'Ricky', '.csproj', '{021CC6B0-8CFB-4194-A103-C19AF869D965}'
Hasala SenevirathneHasala Senevirathne
I've had to do this lots of times. It's really useful to be able to repurpose an existing project but be able to rename text in namespaces, files and folders. Using a recursive find and replace starting at the root folder means the rename doesn't break links to projects in the solution files and project references.
To this end I have created a project to do just this. The application also makes an effort to ignore version control folders such as .git, .svn and the .vs settings file. More info in the README.
gb2dgb2d
After changing the folder name, open the .sln file in notepad and change the path to new path.
LastTribunalLastTribunal
Similar issues arise when a new project has to be created, and you want a different project folder name than the project name.
When you create a new project, it gets stored at
Let's assume you wanted to have it directly in the
ject
folder:My workaround to accomplish this is to create the project with the last part of the path as its name, so that it doesn't create an additional directory:
When you now rename the project from within Visual Studio, you achieve the goal without having to leave VS:
The downside of this approach is that you have to adjust the default namespace and the name of the Output binary as well, and that you have to update namespaces in all files that are included within the project template.
EtanEtan
I use VS 2013 and TFS 2013.
I did it like this:
- Open Visual Studio, without opening solution itself, and use Source Control Explorer to find and rename folders for projects
- Double-click solution file in Source Control Explorer to open a solution.
- You get a question: 'Projects have recently been added to this solution. Do you want to get them from source control?', and you choose Yes
- Now the Folder and project structure are there, but now files, so now you Get Latest Version from source control
- Try to build and commit changes.
MurisMuris
There's a simpler approach which was tested in VS 2013 Update 1 and applicable for TFS-connected projects:
- Open VS but let the solution closed
- Open Source Explorer and rename the desired folder (the solution will be closed for you if you didn't already close it first)
- Right-Click on the solution (from Source Explorer also) and select check-in
- Open the solution, you'll told that there're new projects added, accept to get the changes.
- Remove the project from the solution and add it again, then check-in
- Check that the internal references are OK
Mohamed EmadMohamed Emad
The simplest way is to go to the property of the window change name of default namespaces then the rename is done
hjbjhhjbjh
1-Rename the project outside VS.2-edit your_project_name.sln with a text editor, rename the path to the new path
user1062770user1062770
I did the following:
- Rename the project from within vs2013. (optional/not needed)
- Export the project as a template.
- Close the solution.
- Reopen the solution
- Create a project from the saved template and use the name you like.
- Delete from the solution explorer the previous project.
In this point I tried to compile the new solution and to do so i had to manually copy some resources and headers to the new project folder from the old project folder. Do this until it compiles without errors. Now this new project saved the '.exe' file to the previous folder.*
So ->
- Go to windows explorer and manually copy the solution file from the old project folder to the new project folder.
- Close the solution, and open the solution from within the new project.
- Changed the configuration back to (x64) if needed.
- Delete the folder of the project with the old name from the folder of the solution.
user5141040