Open Visual studio 2010 solution file in visual studio 2008 or visual studio 2005


Many times we need to open Visual Studio 2010 project to VS 2008 or VS 2005, This small technical tip will expalin you how to Open Visual studio 2010 solution file in visual studio 2008.

Last week I have sent a project to my friend, i have created it in visual studio 2010 but he has visual studio 2008. So he unable to open it.
I have come across a solution and it will work for him

I have already publish a resource for Tips and Tricks in visual studio 2010 you can check on below link http://www.dotnetspider.com/resources/43476-Tips-Tricks-Visual-Studio.aspx

Here i share these small technical tips with you guys, If same condition occur with you then this solution may will help you to accomplish your things.

Follow the steps below to get result

1. Take a backup of your .sln file, incase of corruption we can get it back.

2. If your sln file is under any source control, then check out only solution file from source control

3. Now we are ready to get things fix, here our .sln file before conversion


Before_conversion

4. Right click on your VS 2010 .sln file and Open it with the help of Notepad, it should look as below

sln_Notepad

5. Now, we have to change the "Format Version" from "11.0" to "10.0" if you want to convert .sln in visual 2008 and "9.0" if you want to convert .sln in visual 2005
6. One more steps is to convert "Visual Studio" version from "2010" to "2008" or "2005" as per requirement.
here i convert it to 2008, after conversion it will look as below

After_Conversion

7. Now, double click on .sln file and get it run.

Yes, easy steps are over and we are at out destination

Please comment if you have any problem/suggestion/doubt about techinical tip.


Comments

Author: Pawan Awasthi09 Jun 2013 Member Level: Gold   Points : 4

Hai Prasad,
Excellent article related to conversion of projects solutions from one version to another version.
But i think you have missed an step here. After the conversion of solution file if you run the application, it will not run because you need to change the project file also.
If you right click the project file and then open in the notepad, it will still show the framework version which will not be support now as you made the changes in the solution file.
So with that we need to make the changes in the project file and use the relevant version like for Visual Studio 2010, make the changes to 4.0, for Visual Studio 2008, make it to 3.5 and so on.

Author: Prasad kulkarni09 Jun 2013 Member Level: Gold   Points : 2

Thanks for notify me Pawan. You are correct we need to change the project file also.
"use the relevant version like for Visual Studio 2010, make the changes to 4.0, for Visual Studio 2008, make it to 3.5 "

Thanks
Prasad

Guest Author: narayanaprasad15 Jun 2013

Nice article posted by you.Thanks...

Author: Prachi Kulkarni19 Jun 2013 Member Level: Gold   Points : 0

Hi,
I found this article very useful.
Most of the time, we face this version problem while opening specific file/solution.
Good job Prasad!

Regards,
Prachi.

Author: Meera24 Jun 2013 Member Level: Silver   Points : 2

Hi Prasad Sir,
Everyone face the problem to open Visual Studio 2010 projects in the version 2008 or 2005.
But now sir,you give us the way for how to open the projects in different versions.Thanks for giving this information.

Regards
Meera



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