How can I rename a project folder from within Visual Studio?

Question

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 a better way?

Larynx

There is no simple, one-click way of doing it. Not from within Visual Studio, anyways. – Sectarian

In andersjanmyr's solution: you may press <kbd>Alt</kbd> + <kbd>Enter</kbd> 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 Visual&nbsp;Studio&nbsp;2008). – Heyday

This answer includes the procedure for TFS and is the best overall answer I've found for this: https://mcmap.net/q/55139/-renaming-the-containing-project-folder-in-vs-net-under-tfs – Quincyquindecagon

I wont put this as an answer because you shouldnt do it, but doing an agent ransack for the project name and replacing all references to it with the new file name does work if you include all folder and subfolders, and both rename files and also replace text within files. Ive done it several times now, never with more than a few minutes of cleanup afterwards. – Swiger

For VS 2019, if your project is running, then you cannot rename the folder (your mouse's right click on top of the folder does not display the "Rename" option). Stop the running process and try again. – Centrifugate

@Centrifugate that will only change the project name in VS, not the project folder name. I did that and now my project name is different but the project folder still is the same, even more confusing. As of 2019 I also had to remove the project from the solution, rename the folder and then add the project back. – Babism

With VS 2019 it was super easy for me! Just renamed the project in VS and then updated the oldname reference in .sln in notepad, after that rename the project folder name in directory. That was it. I use git, it already picked up the changes to commit (to remove old_Folder from repo and add new_Folder in pending changes. It just worked fine for me. Just in case you can try this in a separate branch to not mess if something goes wrong. – Lobeline

Looking at the 3 most highest voted answers, I see that they all involve editing. I prefer answers that do not involve editing. If you prefer not to edit, your method might be the best even in the year 2021. – Bolden

Very weird it's a missing feature... :/ – Ash

yes name it correctly initially – Gametophyte

.Net 6 with VS2022, try this answer: https://mcmap.net/q/53767/-how-can-i-rename-a-project-folder-from-within-visual-studio – Maighdiln

Answer 1

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.

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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 Visual Studio 2012), 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.)
  • 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:

1. Assembly
2. Default/Root Namespace
3. 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:

1. AssemblyProductAttribute
2. AssemblyDescriptionAttribute
3. AssemblyTitleAttribute

Quincyquindecagon

For those using source control, I think you'd need to rename the folder in source control too. For me, the above steps didn't do so. – Poindexter

When using TFS step 2 is actually to rename the folder in source control and then get the latest before reopening the sln. – Vories

One additional note... You may have to recreate your project references within your solution as well. I have a solution with a number of linked class libraries and I had to delete and re-add the references. – Vernation

The File Path property becomes editable in VS2010 after the folder has been renamed (and VS cannot find the project) – Lesalesak

@AmyPatterson: I think your comment is significant enough to be its own answer. It's the only thing on this page that absolutely worked for me. – Minnow

This didn't work for me in VS 2012; the property is readonly. I had to open the .sln file as text. – Xylography

If you're trying to do this with an installer / deployment project, VS won't let you update the path. You'll need to close the solution and edit the sln file via text editor, then reopen. – Obstinacy

I tried doing this in VS2012, but the File Path was read only, and even if I changed the paths in the *.sln file, the solution still couldn't find my project file. Eventually I figured out how to do it without messing with the *.sln file or other 'hacks'. See my answer below for a step-by-step guide on how to it, while keeping your source control history. – Allyl

The path seems to be editable in VS2013, and according to this excellent answer https://mcmap.net/q/55139/-renaming-the-containing-project-folder-in-vs-net-under-tfs it was in VS2010 too. – Quincyquindecagon

When I rename folder outside VS, I cannot open solution any more... There is no project there. "The project cannot be found". But I can open project itself. I'm using VS2013 – Frae

In VS2013 (and probably later versions as well), you no longer need to do the last step, it is intelligent enough to recognize the new project name automatically. – Warchaw

I did this and found afterwards that none of my controller actions worked. They produced a 404. If I added a new controller and action, exactly the same in every way, (apart form controller name), the new one would work. But not the original. After much head scratching (iis log tracing, application.config fiddling turning it off and on again etc...) I deleted the bin and obj folders for the project, cleaned and rebuilt. That fixed it. – Petey

Used this method to rename WebApi project, corrected all namespaces using resharper, but path in the Global.asax (the one without .cs extension) file was not corrected! I think, you need to add it to instruction – Hollister

In VS2015 you can change the File Path property with the three dots. But in VS2017 this is not possible anymore (and VS cannot load the project) – Kimmi

also remember to rename all project references inside C# code, for example in the using statements in C# classes and Views etc. – Eusebioeusebius

editing the .sln file directly was quick and last step to get it to work for me – Araxes

This was the closest for me, but in VS2019 I had to exit VS, rename the folder, modify the .sln to point to the new project within the solution then reload solution. – Sweepback

Where in the properties settings can I find the change File Path option? – Bedrabble

.Net 6 with VS2022, try this answer: https://mcmap.net/q/53767/-how-can-i-rename-a-project-folder-from-within-visual-studio – Maighdiln

This is ridiculous. Why is it so difficult to do something as simple as renaming a folder in what is purported to be a "full-featured" IDE? Note to self: In the future, just use VSCode. – Grip

This worked for me in VS2022 with a Razor project - I had to move an entire directory to the wwwroot directory, the existing one I had to delete first, which was concerning - it worked with the first 2 steps for everything but my .tfignore file! – Mortimer

I get 'Object reference not set to an instance of the object' on the final step – Whirl

Answer 2

This is straightforward in Visual Studio 2015 (possibly works in older versions)

1. In Solution Explorer, right click on Main solution → Rename
2. In Solution Explorer, right click on project (under solution) → Rename
3. In Solution Explorer, double click, or right click on Properties → goto Application Tab, rename Assembly name and Default namespace to match.
4. 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.
5. Close the project → rename the project folder.
6. Edit the .sln file in Notepad, and change the path to the csproj, i.e., fu\bar.csproj → bar\bar.csproj.

Fascine

You forgot to update project references in dependent projects (if any). – Preserve

Remember to apply step 4 to the subproject folder (that was the only step missing for me so that step 6 worked). – Zeeland

As I read it, the question is not asking how to change the display name of the project in VS or the name of the .exe (maybe the asker had already done all this), but asking specifically how to rename the project folder (in the file system) and keep the .sln in sync. So only steps 5 and 6 seem relevant. But it does seem the best workaround for the lack of a way to do it from within VS. – Katt

In Visual 2019, at step 3), double click or right click on properties is ineffective, therefore, i can't go to "Application Tab".. – Steffin

This worked for me, but just a note that the solution reference in the VS "Open recent" list will still point to the old folder name, giving the appearance that something is messed up. Use the "Open project or solution" wizard to open it fresh. – Leeuwarden

For VS 22, I was renaming existing project, went with steps 2 and 5. Step 3 is not needed, since they are reading assembly in generic way Step 4 was handled through ReSharper Step 6 is done by VS automatically – Watery

Answer 3

There is another way doing this, using the *.sol, *csproj files.

1. Open your solution file.
2. Search for the *.csproj you would like to change.

3. It will be like this (relative to the *.sol file):

   Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "Shani.Commands.Impl", "Shani.Commands.Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl.csproj", "{747CFA4B-FC83-419A-858E-5E2DE2B948EE}"

4. And just change the first part to the new diretory for example:

   Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl.csproj

5. Of course, don't forget to move the whole project to that directory.

Forte

This worked for me, rather than the accepted answer, which did not work because the FilePath property was read-only for me. – Onder

thanks, this helped a lot. Also be sure to change the RootNamespace and AssemblyName values as well. – Psittacine

This did not work for me in VS2019. Gives warnings about project references not existing and compile errors about missing the namespaces and classes in the referenced project. – Graziano

This works for me in Visual Studio 2019, with C# projects. It is a rather simple solution. For people who may be having problems when trying to compile, I recommend you fully rebuild the project instead of only compiling. – Cochabamba

Answer 4

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)

1. Make sure you have checked in all changes, so you have no pending changes.
2. Remove the project from the solution, by right clicking and selecting Remove.
3. Now, in Windows Explorer, rename the project folder.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Find the project folder in Source Control Explorer, that corresponds with the project folder on your disk, that you renamed in step 3.
7. Rename the folder in Source Control Explorer, so it has the same name as the project folder on disk.
8. Now take a look at your pending changes. You should have changes to the solution file and a rename operation on the project folder.
9. 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.
10. 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.

Suzansuzann

Thank you for introducing a procedure that works in VS2012! Note that you may avoid steps 5-10 (i.e. having to bring back the renamed folders within Source Control) if, instead, you close the solution and then rename the folders within VS' Source Control Explorer rather than Windows Explorer. – Neptunium

These steps were close but changing the folder location with Windows Explorer(WE) before renaming in Source Control Explorer(SCE) caused the error: Folder already exists. So I had to rename the folder again in WE then change it in SCE, then copy the files into that folder, before it worked. So follow the comment from mjv above. I also didn't think about needing to change the actual project file names (not just in VS) which I did as an afterthought making me repeat some of these steps. – Pliner

This approach with mjv's comment works in Perforce with the right-click, Rename/Move option as well. – Estas

You can avoid breaking project references, see https://mcmap.net/q/55139/-renaming-the-containing-project-folder-in-vs-net-under-tfs – Quincyquindecagon

@TimAbell Have you tried that procedure in VS2012 and did it work for you? Before I originally wrote my answer, I tried that, but it didn't work for me, because the Project Path in the Properties window was always read only. And it didn't work editing the SLN file either. – Allyl

It worked in VS2013, haven't tried it in 2012. You could work-around the read-only thing by editing the file directly in notepad++ or something. – Quincyquindecagon

This is the only way it worked for me in VS2013 (Ultimate) (.sln structure is different than that of VS2008 or later, maybe its similar to VS2012) – Pothunter

Answer 5

Currently, no. Well, actually you can click the broken project node and in the properties pane look for the property 'Path', click the small browse icon, and select the new path.

Voilà :)

Roobbie

Using VS2015, the "Unloaded Project Properties" property name is "File path" and the value is neither editable nor browsable. – Piles

Answer 6

The simpler solution is the following:

1. Right-click the project and rename it.
2. (optional) Open the project’s property settings and modify the assembly name (and optionally the default namespace) to use the new project name.
3. (optional) Select the namespace name in a source file, right click and select Refactor/Rename to globally rename the namespace to the new project name.
4. (optional) Open the AssemblyInfo.cs file and change the assembly name to match.
5. Save and close the solution.
6. Using Windows Explorer, rename the project folder to the new name.
7. 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 four needed steps, but seven 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. The same for the assembly and namespace names.

Nitrite

Alternate step 7: Open the SLN file with VS, ignore warnings (click "OK"), select the project(s) in Solution Explorer, hit F4, update the file path. Optional Step 0: Right-click solution and rename it. – Crossfertilize

Unbelievable how hard Microsoft make some things – In

This worked for me on Visual Studio Community 2017. The accepted answer did not work (for me); the property that needed to be changed is read-only for me, and cannot be changed in the property dialog. – Heliacal

For an addin programing, I used this guide, but I had to additionally rename .manifest and .addin files including all instances of the old name in their source text. – Bysshe

Answer 7

In andersjanmyr's answer it's easier to rename the project first.

1. Rename the project.
2. Close the solution (save it).
3. Rename the folders outside Visual Studio.
4. Open the solution, ignoring the warnings.
5. Go through all unavailable projects and set the property 'File Path' to the new location of your project file, i.e. someproject.csproj.
6. 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...

<RootNamespace>SomeProjectName</RootNamespace>
<AssemblyName>SomeProjectName</AssemblyName>

...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 occurrences of your old project name in AssemblyInfo.cs.

Kus

Building upon this answer, you can manually edit the solution file so that the path to the project is your new path and avoid warnings upon opening the solution. You can probably click Project>Properties>AssemblyInfo to edit the assembly info from within VS and avoid editing AssemblyInfo.cs file. – Bolden

Answer 8

For those using Visual Studio + Git and wanting to keep the file history (works renaming both projects and/or solutions):

1. Close Visual Studio

2. In the .gitignore file, duplicate all ignore paths of the project you want to rename with renamed versions of those paths.

3. Use the Git move command like this:

   git mv <old_folder_name> <new_folder_name>
   

   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:

   Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "<Project name>", "<path-to-project>\<project>.csproj"
   

5. Open Visual Studio, and 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.

Seethrough

Answer 9

For Visual Studio 2017 you can use my Visual Studio extension:

Download

It will rename the project in:

• The project location folder
• The solution file
• References in other projects
• The assembly name, information
• The default namespace

Kidron

awesome! tired of all the manual renames I have had to do in the past. Works well. Didn't find a string reference in another package however. Not sure if that is intentional. – Kerb

thx. but I didn't understand the following: "string reference in another package". Can you explain it? – Kidron

So I have a test project and I so I have [assembly: InternalsVisibleTo("MyTests")]. When I renamed MyTests, it didn't rename that reference. Again, I don't think this falls under your purview and it's easy to solve manually. – Kerb

You are right. The extension doesn't have such feature. – Kidron

Awesome! I just download your extension and it worked. However it would be nice if it lets you optionally fix namespaces too – Digastric

Thx. Fixing namespaces was implemented for C# projects. You can check it by updating the extension – Kidron

This extension did not work for me (C++ project on VS 2017). Among other problems, it did not preserve Filters inside the Solution Explorer. For large projects, that would be very annoying. If you want to try it, be sure you're fully backed up first! – Lehrer

This extension assumes that the folder currently has the same name as the project (before renaming). If they differ, the renaming fail :( I also didn't get "Rename Namespaces" to work. Luckily, I only used it on quite small solutions. Otherwise, great! – Teresaterese

Nice work but didn't worked for me, though I closed all the files – Unidirectional

@dESource please, create issue with exception stacktrace in github.com/kuanysh-nabiyev/RenameProjectVsExtension/issues – Kidron

Sorry, the link is broken! – Suckerfish

@MassimilianoKraus I make the extension private, because of last negative reviews without explanation on marketplace. sorry for that. I have updated the link – Kidron

Answer 10

I just had to do this myself (using Visual Studio 2010). As some folks have answered, the simplest step seems to be:

1. Close the Visual Studio project.
2. Open the .sln file and rename the project directory prefix for each of the .csproj occurrences.
3. Save the .sln file
4. Rename the actual project folder directory on your hard drive to match your changes in the .sln file.
5. Open the .sln (in Visual Studio) and rebuild

Vladimir

This really seems the simplest way to do it, although I prefer to do step 4 before step 2. – Wintertime

Answer 11

Using Visual Studio 2019, I followed below steps to make the project name change successful:

1. Close the solution
2. Rename the project folder to match with new project name
3. Open solution file in notepad++ kind of editor and edit the FilePath with new project name folder
4. Open the solution and click No if it ask whether you want to open from source control
5. Right click the project which you want renaming and click Properties then change below: Change Assembly Name, Default Assembly namespace and Assembly information with new name
6. Open any of the file and move the file to new namespace which will be done by all files
7. If you have app.config kind of files then make sure to move them also in new namespace
8. Rebuild it which will work successfully

Paphian

On Visual Studio 2019, I can't find Assembly Name, Default Assembly namespace and Assembly information (in properties of the project) at step 5). Furthemore, your answer keeps the old name of the proj file. – Steffin

Answer 12

A proven solution for Visual Studio extension for Data Tools for Business Intelligence (SSDT-BI 2013):

1. Move the Project folder to its new location (don't rename anything yet)
2. In Solution Explorer, rename the Project / Solution.
3. Close (and save) the newly-renamed project.
4. Rename the project's folder and .sln file.
5. Use a text editor and open the newly-renamed project solution file (.sln) (I used Notepad++)
6. In line number 6 you'll see: "Project {fdjfksdjk4387!...} = "OLDPROJECT", "OLDFOLDER\OLDPROJECT.rptproj". Rename everything with the new names used in step 4. (i.e. ... = "NEWPROJECT", "NEWFOLDER\NEWPROJECT.rptproj"... )
7. That's it!

It was tested 100% and worked flawlessly in my case.

NOTE: I can't confirm if it works under different project templates and other Visual Studio versions. As always, do backup everything beforehand.

Paley

Answer 13

What worked for me in Visual Studio 2017:

• Close solution in Visual Studio
• Rename the directories of projects in the solution.
  • (push change in source control - Git in my case)
• Edit the .sln file in a text editor (outside Visual Studio 2017) changing the name of the directory.
• Reopen the solution in Visual Studio

It said something like "re-adding project". I rebuilt everything and everything was good to go.

Daron

Additionally you may need to remove the old project from the dependencies of other projects and re-add the newly renamed project as a new dependency (Right click on the old project >> Remove, then right click on Dependencies >> Add reference >> Select your new project) – Daffodil

Answer 14

I just solved this problem for myself writing a global dotnet tool (that also takes into account git+history).

Install via dotnet tool install -g ModernRonin.ProjectRenamer, use with renameproject <oldName> <newName>.

Documentation/Tinkering/PRs at

https://github.com/ModernRonin/ProjectRenamer

Issuable

meanwhile the tool also deals with moving projects to different directories etc. – Issuable

This tool worked perfectly for my project. Thank you for this! – Danelle

Glad it helped :-) – Issuable

Answer 15

I am recently working on .Net 6 project with VS2022. and I need to rename my templatemicroservice to my UserMicroservice.

.Net 6 changes most of the things for you. like AssemblyNames and NameSpaces. Also, it changes the ProjectName references in .sln automatically. So, this answer will really help you to rename your service with no hurdles.

So, Steps I followed:

Open the solution in Visual Studio and did these steps:

1. I renamed my solution by right clicking on it. like, TemplateServiceSolution to UserServiceSolution.
2. Renamed all the Projects in solution by right clicking on them. like, TemplateService to UserService.
3. In a specific project, I searched the namespaces like: namespace TemplateService and replaced all by namespace UserService. Do this step in each project. Also relplace using TemplateService to using UserService.
4. Open your launchsettings.json, and rename anything related to old service, as I had few things in profiles of launchsettings.json.
5. Just to be sure, please check your startup and program.cs files as well, I didn't have any changes in them.

Closed the solution from Visual Studio and did these steps:

1. Closed the solution, and opened the File Explorer. Renamed all my project folders from TemplateService to UserService.
2. Open the .sln in notepad/notepad++, and must change the Folder Structure name. like for a particular project, I should give the correct .csproj paths. as shown in image, I need to rename TemplateService to UserService.

Open the solution in Visual Studio. Most of your Dependencies will be loaded as soon as you Load your solution in Visual Studio Code. and you are ready.

Maighdiln

Answer 16

See item 3 in the linked article.

1. Close the solution and the IDE.
2. In Windows Explorer: Change the directory name to the new name.
3. In Windows Explorer: Open the .sln file with a text editor.
4. Change the directory name to the new name and save.
5. Restart the IDE and open the solution from menu File → Recent Files menu if it doesn't start automatically.
6. Click on the project folder in 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.

Therewith

Answer 17

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 (including file / directory names).

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 information is in the README.

https://github.com/garethrbrown/vs-project-rename

Lagerkvist

Nice work! Your project is actually a renaming tool. I think one thing really is missing: a match whole word option. – Emphysema

Answer 18

Note: This fix is for Visual Studio 2008, but it should work here.

1. Using Windows Explorer, rename both the solution folders (the parent folder and the child folder) to the new solution name.
2. Delete the .sln file located in the parent folder.
3. In Visual Studio, select menu File ► Open Project.
4. Drill into the new folder you just renamed and open the .csproj file (located in the child folder).
5. Right-click the project name and rename it to what you want. (It should be the same name as the folder in step 1.)
6. Select menu File ► Close Solution. A dialog will ask if you want to save changes to the .sln file. Click Yes.
7. 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. It is not required, but it maintains consistency.)

Done.

Highcolored

Thank you for the very clear explanation. I followed your advice and successfully renamed the project but it's startup project folder disappeared. I right clicked the Solution in Solution Explorer > Add > Existing Item. – Firstborn

Answer 19

You cannot rename a folder if your project is currently running

1. Stop your application Shift+F5
2. Rename your folder from the Solution Explorer (right-click > rename or F2)

Ephesian

Answer 20

This worked well for me in Visual Studio 2019.

1. Rename the solution, projects in Visual Studio by simply single clicking on the file names as normal.
2. Rename the namespaces in Visual Studio.
3. Rename the desired elements on the main project page (publish location, application, default namespace, whatever). As noted correctly, this does nothing for the folders, but it does rename the project files and keeps everything tied together in Visual Studio.
4. Close Visual Studio.
5. Rename the folders.
6. Open Visual Studio and reply 'no' to getting projects from Source Control.
7. Delete the unloaded project references.
8. Add each project back in using Add existing project from Solution. This tied everything together and the project built for me.

Please comment on and correct anything above that does not work.

Howlond

Answer 21

This is how I renamed my existing project in VS19.

1. Close the visual studio project
2. Rename and open the each project folder name on your drive
3. Rename each .csproj
4. Open .sln file and rename the project directory prefix for each of the .csproj occurrences.
5. Open the .sln file in visual studio and rebuild
6. Update prevoius nameSpace refrence with new one by going through each file or using ReplaceAll

Maldives

Answer 22

I have written a small tool that automates all these steps. It also supports Subversion for now.

Information about current releases can be found at Visual Studio Project Renamer Infos.

The latest releases can now be downloaded from the Visual Studio Project Renamer Download Page.

Feedback is much appreciated.

Ejective

Answer 23

I often had the same problem of renaming a project in Visual Studio and editing the folder name, project name, and .sln file in order to accomplish that. I just wrote a VBScript script that accomplishes all that. You have to be careful with the strings you choose for replacing.

You just have to put the .vbs file in the same directory as the .sln file of the solution.

' Script parameters'
Solution = "Rename_Visual_Studio_Project" '.sln'
Project = "Rename_Visual_Studio_Project" '.csproj'
NewProject = "SUCCESS"

Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2

Set objFso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
scriptDirr = objFso.GetParentFolderName(wscript.ScriptFullName)

' Rename the all project references in the .sln file'
Set objFile = objFso.OpenTextFile(scriptDirr + "\" + Solution + ".sln", ForReading)
fileText = objFile.ReadAll
newFileText = Replace(fileText, Project, NewProject)
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(scriptDirr + "\" + Solution + ".sln", ForWriting)
objFile.WriteLine(newFileText)
objFile.Close

' Rename the .csproj file'
objFso.MoveFile scriptDirr + "\" + Project + "\" + Project + ".csproj", scriptDirr + "\" + Project + "\" + NewProject + ".csproj"

' Rename the folder of the .csproj file'
objFso.MoveFolder scriptDirr + "\" + Project, scriptDirr + "\" + NewProject

Pm

Answer 24

1. Rename the project in the solution and the project folder

2. Delete the project from the solution

3. Add the existing project to the solution (your renamed project)

It works for me. TFS will also track the new project.

Bemoan

Answer 25

Go to the .sln file, right click, open with Notepad++ (or any editor; Notepad++ is the fastest), find the path, change it.

Borman

This is not enough for a C++ project with Visual Studio 2019, it induces failure during the loading of the project. – Steffin

Answer 26

When using TFS, step 2 is actually to rename the folder in source control and then get the latest before reopening the solution.

Vories

Answer 27

There's a simpler approach which was tested in Visual Studio 2013 Update 1 and applicable for TFS-connected projects:

• Open Visual Studio, but let the solution be 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 be told that there're new projects added. Accept to get the changes.
• Remove the project from the solution and add it again, and then check-in.
• Check that the internal references are OK.

Unexacting

Answer 28

We recently uploaded a beta of a free Visual Studio extension which does this stuff for you.

Have a look at Visual Studio Gallery: Gallery Download

Ratepayer

Answer 29

Well, I did it my way

• Close Visual Studio 2012
• Rename your subdirectory to the preferred name under .sln
• Delete the *.suo file
• Open the solution again, and fix any properties of Project(s) loaded to meet the new subdirectory name

Screeching

Answer 30

1. Rename the project outside Visual Studio.
2. Edit your_project_name.sln with a text editor, and rename the path to the new path.

Osteopath

That seems similar to the current solution and a little more difficult. – Jdavie

Answer 31

Open .sln in a text editor, and in the following line change <FolderName> to your new folder name Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "Ricky", "\.csproj", "{021CC6B0-8CFB-4194-A103-C19AF869D965}"

Carrelli

Answer 32

First, close the localhost and then right-click on the folder. You will get rename option. (Visual Studio 2022). This worked for me. If you don't get rename option then go through other solutions.

Abatis

Answer 33

After changing the folder name, open the .sln file in Notepad and change the path to new path.

Cocker

Answer 34

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

./path/to/pro/ject/YourProject/YourProject.**proj

Let's assume you wanted to have it directly in the ject folder:

./path/to/pro/ject/YourProject.**proj

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:

./path/to/pro/ject/ject.**proj

When you now rename the project from within Visual Studio, you achieve the goal without having to leave Visual Studio:

./path/to/pro/ject/YourProject.**proj

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.

Sejm

Answer 35

I use Visual Studio 2013 and TFS 2013.

I did it like this:

1. Open Visual Studio, without opening the solution itself, and use Source Control Explorer to find and rename folders for projects
2. Double-click the solution file in Source Control Explorer to open a solution.
3. 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.
4. Now the folder and project structure are there, but now files, so now you get the latest version from source control
5. Try to build and commit changes.

Febrifacient

so no windows explorer things. In the end, you can delete all local files and get whole (clean) project from source control. – Febrifacient

I just found out that it is also possible, due to folder rearranging, that solution file creates empty folder where some project was stored. Then, open solution file in notepad and decrees number of property SccNumberOfProjects by the number of empty directories created, and delete corresponding SccProjectUniqueName#, SccProjectName#, SccLocalPath# and other properties with same #. – Febrifacient

Answer 36

The simplest way is to go to the property of the window, change the name of the default namespaces, and then the rename is done.

Chekiang

What is the window you speak of? Do you mean the properties window of the project? – Bride

Answer 37

I did the following:

<Create a backup of the entire folder>

1. Rename the project from within Visual Studio 2013 (optional/not needed).

2. Export the project as a template.

3. Close the solution.

4. Reopen the solution

5. Create a project from the saved template and use the name you like.

6. Delete from the solution explorer the previous project.

At 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 ->

7. Go to Windows Explorer and manually copy the solution file from the old project folder to the new project folder.

8. Close the solution, and open the solution from within the new project.

9. Changed the configuration back to (x64) if needed.

10. Delete the folder of the project with the old name from the folder of the solution.

Biegel

Answer 38

Or simply, copy all the codes, open a new project with the desired name, and paste the code. Run debug and then delete the previous project. Done!

It worked for me!

Lifeordeath

Answer 39

The other answers provide lots of details on how to do it. Here's a shortcut, though, that can save you some work:

1. Rename the project folder
2. Rename the .csproj file
3. Mass replace the project name in all files in the solution (I use GrepWin, it has a convenient GUI with preview)

That way you don't have to mess around tediously with the Visual Studio GUI. You can also fix the namespace that way. You can use source control to validate the changes (e.g. open TortoiseGit Commit and look at the changes).

Chinookan

Answer 40

The simplest way:

1. Create a template from the current project
   Project -> Export Template... -> Project Template -> Finish
2. Create a new project using the template with the name you want it to have
   File -> New Project -> Find the template -> Give it the name you want -> Add to existing solution or just as new

That's it, you're done, you can now delete the other project if you want, but make sure the new one works as expected first. The template should retain all dependencies and project settings.

Subtotal

Answer 41

A bit late to the party but in VS2022 your suggested way was still the easiest for me (I do not like editing .sln files directly).

That is:

• Remove the project from the solution.

• Rename the folder outside

• Re-add the project to the solution.

---

For example if you want to rename Project 'HelloWorld' to 'HelloStackOverflow'.

1. In Visual Studio: Rename Project from 'HelloWorld' to 'HelloStackOverflow'
2. In Visual Studio: Remove Project 'HelloStackOverflow'
3. In the File System: Navigate to folder: Rename 'HelloWorld' to 'HelloStackOverflow'
4. In Visual Studio: Add existing Project 'HelloStackOverflow' in VS2022
5. In Visual Studio: If there are dependencies to this project, you have to remove them and add them to the new project.

Fayfayal

This will not change namespaces or configuration files. After the steps you've mentioned, I would recommend to execute the command grep -inr "HelloWorld" /path/to/project/**/*. Then you can see where the old name still exists and change it manually. – Residuum

Answer 42

What worked for me:

1. Rename the folder name in project references in VS e.g.: <ProjectReference Include="..\FolderName\ProjectName.csproj" />)

2. In file explorer, go to the folder and change its name

3. Go to the SNL file (e.g. in VSC) and rename the folder name e.g.:

Project("{}") = "FolderName", "FolderName\ProjectName", "{}" EndProject)

Persinger

Answer 43

Right click project → Properties, and set (name) to the required name.

Yearlong