General, Projects and Solutions, Options Dialog Box

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Sets the default path of Visual Studio project folders, and determines the default behavior of the Output window, Task List, and Solution Explorer as projects are developed and built. To access this dialog box, on the Tools menu, click Options, expand Projects and Solutions, and click General.

Note

The options available in dialog boxes, and the names and locations of menu commands you see, might differ from what is described in Help depending on your settings or Visual Studio edition.

Settings

  • Projects location
    Sets the default location where new projects and solution folders and directories are created. Several dialog boxes also use the location set in this option for folder starting points. For example, the Open Project dialog box uses this location for the My Projects shortcut.

  • User project templates location
    Sets the default location that is used by the New Project dialog box to create the list of My Templates. For more information, see How to: Locate and Organize Project and Item Templates.

  • User item templates location
    Sets the default location that is used by the Add New Item dialog box to create the list of My Templates. For more information, see How to: Locate and Organize Project and Item Templates.

  • Always show Error List if build finishes with errors
    Opens the Error List window on build completion, only if a project failed to build. Errors that occur during the build process are displayed. When this option is cleared, the errors still occur but the window does not open when the build is complete. This option is enabled by default.

  • Track Active Item in Solution Explorer
    When selected, Solution Explorer automatically opens and the active item is selected. The selected item changes as you work with different files in a project or solution, or different components in a designer. When this option is cleared, the selection in Solution Explorer does not change automatically. This option is enabled by default.

  • Show advanced build configurations
    When selected, the build configuration options appear on the Project Property Pages dialog box and the Solution Property Pages dialog box. When cleared, the build configuration options do not appear on the Project Property Pages dialog box and the Solution Property Pages dialog box for Visual Basic and Visual C# projects that contain one configuration or the two configurations debug and release. If a project has a user-defined configuration, the build configuration options are shown.

    When unselected, the commands on the Build menu, such as Build Solution, Rebuild Solution, and Clean Solution, are performed on the Release configuration and the commands on the Debug menu, such as Start Debugging and Start Without Debugging, are performed on the Debug configuration.

  • Always show solution
    When selected, the solution and all commands that act on solutions are always shown in the IDE. When cleared, all projects are created as stand-alone projects and you do not see the solution in Solution Explorer or commands that act on solutions in the IDE if the solution contains only one project.

  • Save new projects when created
    When selected, you can specify a location for your project in the New Project dialog box. When cleared, all new projects are created as temporary projects. When you are working with temporary projects, you can create and experiment with a project without having to specify a disk location.

  • Warn user when the project location is not trusted
    If you attempt to create a new project or open an existing project in a location that is not fully trusted (for example, on a UNC path or an HTTP path), a message is displayed. Use this option to specify whether the message is displayed each time that you attempt to create or open a project in a location that is not fully trusted.

  • Show Output window when build starts
    Automatically displays the Output Window in the IDE at the outset of solution builds. For more information, see How to: Control the Output Window. This option is enabled by default.

  • Prompt for symbolic renaming when renaming files
    When selected, displays a message box asking whether or not Visual Studio should also rename all references in the project to the code element.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Control the Output Window

Concepts

Creating Solutions and Projects

Solutions and Projects

Temporary Projects

Other Resources

Projects and Solutions Options Dialog Box

Stand-Alone Projects