With a project selected in Solution Explorer, on the Project menu, click Properties.

Click the Compile tab.

Click the Build Events button to open the Build Events dialog box.

Enter the command-line arguments for your pre-build or post-build action, and then click OK.

Note
Add a call statement before all post-build commands that run .bat files. For example, call C:\MyFile.bat or call C:\MyFile.bat call C:\MyFile2.bat.

Create a console application for the command. From the File menu, click New, then Project.

In the New Project dialog box, in the Visual Basic node, select Windows, then the Console Application template. Name the project ChangeOSVersionVB.

In Module1.vb, add the following line to the other Imports statements at the top of the file:

Imports System.Xml

Add the following code in Sub Main:

Sub Main()
   Dim applicationManifestPath As String
   applicationManifestPath = My.Application.CommandLineArgs(0)
   Console.WriteLine("Application Manifest Path: " & applicationManifestPath.ToString)

   'Get version name
   Dim osVersion As Version
   If My.Application.CommandLineArgs.Count >= 2 Then
      osVersion = New Version(My.Application.CommandLineArgs(1).ToString)
   Else
      Throw New ArgumentException("OS Version not specified.")
   End If
   Console.WriteLine("Desired OS Version: " & osVersion.ToString())


   Dim document As XmlDocument
   Dim namespaceManager As XmlNamespaceManager
   namespaceManager = New XmlNamespaceManager(New NameTable())
   With namespaceManager
      .AddNamespace("asmv1", "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1")
      .AddNamespace("asmv2", "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v2")
   End With

   document = New XmlDocument()
   document.Load(applicationManifestPath)

   Dim baseXPath As String
   baseXPath = "/asmv1:assembly/asmv2:dependency/asmv2:dependentOS/asmv2:osVersionInfo/asmv2:os"

   'Change minimum required OS Version.
   Dim node As XmlNode
   node = document.SelectSingleNode(baseXPath, namespaceManager)
   node.Attributes("majorVersion").Value = osVersion.Major.ToString()
   node.Attributes("minorVersion").Value = osVersion.Minor.ToString()
   node.Attributes("buildNumber").Value = osVersion.Build.ToString()
   node.Attributes("servicePackMajor").Value = osVersion.Revision.ToString()

   document.Save(applicationManifestPath)
End Sub

The command takes two arguments: the path to the application manifest (that is, the folder in which the build process creates the manifest, typically Projectname.publish), and the new operating system version.

Build the project. On the Build menu, click Build Solution.

Copy the .exe file to a directory such as C:\TEMP\ChangeOSVersionVB.exe.

Create a Windows application for the project to be published. From the File menu, click New, then Project.

In the New Project dialog box, in the Visual Basic node, select Windows, then the Windows Application template. Name the project VBWinApp.

With the project selected in Solution Explorer, on the Project menu, click Properties.

In the Project Designer, go to the Publish page and set Publishing location to C:\TEMP\.

Publish the project by clicking Publish Now.

The manifest file will be built and placed in C:\TEMP\VBWinApp_1_0_0_0\VBWinApp.exe.manifest. To view the manifest, right-click on the file and click Open with, then Select the program from a list, then select Notepad.

Search in the file for the <osVersionInfo> element. For example, the version might be:

<os majorVersion="4" minorVersion="10" buildNumber="0" servicePackMajor="0" />

In the Project Designer, go to the Compile tab and click the Build Events button to open the Build Events dialog box.

In the Post-build Event Command Line box, enter the following command:

C:\TEMP\ChangeOSVersionVB.exe "$(TargetPath).manifest" 5.1.2600.0

When you build the project, this command will change the minimum operating system version in the application manifest to 5.1.2600.0.

The $(TargetPath) macro expresses the full path for the executable being created, so $(TargetPath).manifest will specify the application manifest created in the bin directory. Publishing will copy this manifest to the publishing location that you set above.

Publish the project again. Go to the Publish page and click Publish Now.

View the manifest again. To view the manifest, go to the publish directory, right-click on the file and click Open with, then Select the program from a list, then select Notepad.

The version should now read:

<os majorVersion="5" minorVersion="1" buildNumber="2600" servicePackMajor="0" />