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Project and Solution Files

The following files are created when you create a project in Visual Studio. They are used to manage project files in the solution.

Filename

Directory location

Solution Explorer location

Description

Solname.sln

Projname

Not displayed in Solution Explorer

The solution file. It organizes all elements of a project or multiple projects into one solution.

Projname.suo

Projname

Not displayed in Solution Explorer

The solution options file. It stores your customizations for the solution so that every time you open a project or file in the solution, it has the appearance and behavior you want.

Projname.vcxproj

Projname

Not displayed in Solution Explorer

The project file. It stores information specific to each project. (In earlier versions, this file was named Projname.vcproj or Projname.dsp.) For an example of a Visual C++ project file, see Project Files.

Projname.sdf

Projname

Not displayed in Solution Explorer

The browsing database file. It supports browsing and navigation features such as Goto Definition, Find All References, and Class View. It is generated by parsing the header files.

Projname.vcxproj.filters

Projname

Not displayed in Solution Explorer

The filters file. It specifies where to put a file that is added to the solution. For example, a .h file is put in the Header Files node.

Projname.vcxproj.user

Projname

Not displayed in Solution Explorer

The migration user file. After a project is migrated from Visual Studio 2008, this file contains information that was converted from any .vsprops file.

Projname.idl

Projname

Source

(Project-specific) Contains the Interface Description Language (IDL) source code for a control type library. This file is used by Visual C++ to generate a type library. The generated library exposes the interface of the control to other Automation clients. For more information, see Interface Definition (IDL) File in the Windows SDK.

Readme.txt

Projname

Project

The read me file. It is generated by the application wizard and describes the files in a project.

See Also

Concepts

File Types Created for Visual C++ Projects