How to rename a project folder in Visual Studio

Example folder name ‘PortableMedia’ that I wish to rename to ‘Renishaw.IDT.Powers.PortableMedia’:

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Step 1: Close the VS solution and nename the folder in source control

‘PortableMedia’

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Gets changed to ‘Renishaw.IDT.Powers.PortableMedia’:

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Re-open the solution.

Observe that the renamed project that is now marked as unavailable in the Solution Explorer:

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Open the Properties pane on that unavailable folder: Just select properties window – you can’t right-click and select properties anymore…

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Edit the folder and update the path name:

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(If you have problems doing this then just edit the *.sln file using notepad++ and change the ‘File Path’ property in there)

Right click on that unavailable project and try to reload project. This should work now:

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Remove the old folder in your workspace folder:

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You might get the following build whinge

1>—— Build started: Project: RenishawOnDemand.TestHarness, Configuration: Debug x64 ——
1>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\bin\Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets(1611,5): warning : The referenced project ‘..\PortableMedia\Renishaw.IDT.Powers.PortableMedia.csproj’ does not exist.
1> RenishawOnDemand.TestHarness -> E:\IDT\POWERS\Windows App\APP\RenishawOnDemand\RenishawOnDemand\RenishawOnDemand\bin\x64\Debug\Renishaw.IDT.Powers.RenishawOnDemand.TestHarness.exe
========== Build: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 2 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========

In this case just look for instances of where the old folder location is still being referenced (in my case it was the app.config) and update these:

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