Visual-studio – How to get VS2008 to create a different *.DLL name after you have already created the project

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To create a project in VS2008 you have to assign the compiled output a name right when you create the project. If you are creating a class library this output is <output name>.DLL. I can change every other name in the project through the VS2008 interface. If I later regret the output's name I cannot find a way to change the project's output *.exe or *.dll name.

How does one change the name of the output of a VS2008 project when the project has been created and that output name has been already defined?

Best Answer

Change the assembly name in the project properties.

In Solution Explorer, find the project you're interested in and double click on "Properties" (just under the project name). That will bring up the properties page for the project in the main editor view.

In the "Application" tab there's an "Assembly name" option - this is what decides the output filename.

Related Solutions

Visual-studio – Copying a DLL’s dependencies in Visual Studio

You can achieve this with the project properties window. Visual Studio allows you to define events to occur, before, or after building. To get to the project properties window simply right-click on your project in the solution explorer window and click on 'properties'. From the left hand side go to the 'build events' tab.

In the post-build box type in a few copy commands. For example:

copy "$(SolutionDir)mydll.dll" "$(TargetDir)"

Where $(SolutionDir) and $(TargetDir) are both predefined variables. The standard syntax is as follows:

copy "source directory and file name" "destination directory"

If you click on the 'edit post build...' button it will bring up a box which has a listing of these predefined variables that you can insert (like $(SolutionDir) and $(TargetDir))

As a side note, this is a useful process for copying other files, such as custom configuration files, images, or any other dependencies your project may have.

Visual-studio – Visual Studio 2010 always thinks project is out of date, but nothing has changed

For Visual Studio/Express 2010 only. See other (easier) answers for VS2012, VS2013, etc

To find the missing file(s), use info from the article Enable C++ project system logging to enable debug logging in Visual Studio and let it just tell you what's causing the rebuild:

Open the devenv.exe.config file (found in %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\ or in %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\). For Express versions the config file is named V*Express.exe.config.

Add the following after the </configSections> line:

<system.diagnostics>
  <switches>
    <add name="CPS" value="4" />
  </switches>
</system.diagnostics>

Restart Visual Studio
Open up DbgView and make sure it's capturing debug output
Try to debug (hit F5 in Visual Studio)
Search the debug log for any lines of the form:

devenv.exe Information: 0 : Project 'Bla\Bla\Dummy.vcxproj' not up to date because build input 'Bla\Bla\SomeFile.h' is missing.

(I just hit Ctrl+F and searched for not up to date) These will be the references causing the project to be perpetually "out of date".

To correct this, either remove any references to the missing files from your project, or update the references to indicate their actual locations.

Note: If using 2012 or later then the snippet should be:

<system.diagnostics>
  <switches>
   <add name="CPS" value="Verbose" />
  </switches>
</system.diagnostics>

Best Answer

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Visual-studio – Copying a DLL’s dependencies in Visual Studio

Visual-studio – Visual Studio 2010 always thinks project is out of date, but nothing has changed

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