How to open Visual Studio 2008 project in Visual Studio 2005

Question

 How to open Visual Studio 2008 project in Visual Studio 2005

I have open a project in Visual Studio 2008 but why i cant open it on Visual Studio 2005

Answer 1

Hi,

What happens when you open the 2008 project in Visual Studio 2005? Do you get any error messages?

Also, what type of project are you trying to open?

Thanks,
Parool

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Parool Mody, Visual Studio Debugger

Answer 2

i'm using visual studio 2008 to doing my final project, but when i copy the whole documents to my school who using visual studio 2005 i cant open.

i create a project is using Windows Forms Application templates

Answer 3

Hi jianwei87,

When we open a Visual Studio 2005 solution by Visual Studio 2008, a “Visual Studio Conversion Wizard” will be prompt to convert this solution to Visual Studio 2008 version. Then we cannot open that solution by Visual Studio 2005 because the message: “The selected file is a solution file, but was created by a new version of this application and cannot be opened”.

If we selected saving a backup when converting, we can find a “Backup” sub-folder in the project. Restore the backup files and create a new solution file can fix this issue. Otherwise, please first use notepad.ext to open the solution (*.sln) and project (*.csproj) files and change the version information information based on other sample solution and project files created by Visual Studio 2005. At last, rebuild the project and fix all the errors.

To create a new solution file, we can double click the project file and Visual Studio will generate a solution file automatically. Alternately we can first create a solution file and then add the existing project by the following steps:

   1. "File | New | Project"
   2. "Other Project Types | Visual Studio Solutions | Blank Solution"
   3. Right click the blank solution in Solution Explorer, then select “Add | Existing Project…”

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Answer 4

i think you misunderstanding. i need to open the visual studio 2008 project at visual studio 2005.

Answer 5

 

Hi jianwei87,

 

Sorry for my misunderstanding and thanks for your clarification. Now I understand that you want to open a Visual Studio 2008 Windows Forms Application by Visual Studio 2005 IDE.

 

Actually, Visual Studio 2005 cannot open the solution or project file created by Visual Studio 2008. If you want to do that, please first compare the difference between VS.NET 2008 project and VS.NET 2005 project. Generally, there will be the following different sections between them (a simplest csproj file).

 

1. <ProjectToolsVersion>
2. <ProductVersion>
3. <ProjectGuid>
4. <TargetFrameworkVersion>
5. <FileAignment>
6. <ImportProject>

 

It is not recommended to modify the project file directly. So please create a new Windows Forms Application project (with same name) by Visual Studio 2005 and then import the existing files by right clicking the proejct node in Solution Explorer, and then select “Add | Existing Item…”. Just a reminder, VS.NET 2005 doesn't support .NET 3.0 or 3.5 projects. Hence, if the project created by VS.NET 2008 is based on Framework 3.0 or 3.5. You probably need to remove some namespace after adding existing items.

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Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Answer 6

Hi Benson,
Your reply cannot be marked as appropriate answer. Can you please explain step by step. Pls dont assume the developer to think or accept to respond exactly by just guiding. Fine, Can you please provide the steps to convert a VS.Net 2008 web application project to convert and open in VS.Net 2005. Please explain step by step.
Regards,
Suresh Kumar V.C - MCP

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amateur