.net – Prevent Visual Studio from automatically creating “Mixed Platforms” solution configuration

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 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

I've found powershell useful for this. I consider LoC to be a pretty bogus metric anyway, so I don't believe anything more formal should be required.

From a smallish solution's directory:

PS C:\Path> (gci -include *.cs,*.xaml -recurse | select-string .).Count
8396
PS C:\Path>

That will count the non-blank lines in all the solution's .cs and .xaml files. For a larger project, I just used a different extension list:

PS C:\Other> (gci -include *.cs,*.cpp,*.h,*.idl,*.asmx -recurse | select-string .).Count
909402
PS C:\Other>

Why use an entire app when a single command-line will do it? :)