How can I rename a project folder from within Visual Studio?

visual-studio directory projects-and-solutions

My current solution for renaming the project folder is:

Remove the project from the solution.

Rename the folder outside Visual Studio.

Re-add the project to the solution.

Is there a better way?

There is no simple, one-click way of doing it. Not from within Visual Studio, anyways.

In andersjanmyr's solution: you may press <kbd>Alt</kbd> + <kbd>Enter</kbd> to bring up the Properties Page for the unavailable project and set the "File Path" property there; since it is not available in the right-click context menu of the unavailable project (in Visual Studio 2008).

This answer includes the procedure for TFS and is the best overall answer I've found for this: stackoverflow.com/a/10853509/10245

I wont put this as an answer because you shouldnt do it, but doing an agent ransack for the project name and replacing all references to it with the new file name does work if you include all folder and subfolders, and both rename files and also replace text within files. Ive done it several times now, never with more than a few minutes of cleanup afterwards.

@Marco that will only change the project name in VS, not the project folder name. I did that and now my project name is different but the project folder still is the same, even more confusing. As of 2019 I also had to remove the project from the solution, rename the folder and then add the project back.

13 revs, 10 users 51%

TFS users: If you are using source control that requires you to warn it before your rename files/folders then look at this answer instead which covers the extra steps required.

To rename a project's folder, file (.*proj) and display name in Visual Studio:

Close the solution.

Rename the folder(s) outside Visual Studio. (Rename in TFS if using source control)

Open the solution, ignoring the warnings (answer "no" if asked to load a project from source control).

Go through all the unavailable projects and... Open the properties window for the project (highlight the project and press Alt+Enter or F4, or right-click > properties). Set the property 'File Path' to the new location. If the property is not editable (as in Visual Studio 2012), then open the .sln file directly in another editor such as Notepad++ and update the paths there instead. (You may need to check-out the solution first in TFS, etc.) Reload the project - right-click > reload project. Change the display name of the project, by highlighting it and pressing F2, or right-click > rename.

Open the properties window for the project (highlight the project and press Alt+Enter or F4, or right-click > properties).

Set the property 'File Path' to the new location. If the property is not editable (as in Visual Studio 2012), then open the .sln file directly in another editor such as Notepad++ and update the paths there instead. (You may need to check-out the solution first in TFS, etc.)

If the property is not editable (as in Visual Studio 2012), then open the .sln file directly in another editor such as Notepad++ and update the paths there instead. (You may need to check-out the solution first in TFS, etc.)

Reload the project - right-click > reload project.

Change the display name of the project, by highlighting it and pressing F2, or right-click > rename.

Note: Other suggested solutions that involve removing and then re-adding the project to the solution will break project references.

If you perform these steps then you might also consider renaming the following to match:

Assembly Default/Root Namespace Namespace of existing files (use the refactor tools in Visual Studio or ReSharper's inconsistent namespaces tool)

Also consider modifying the values of the following assembly attributes:

AssemblyProductAttribute AssemblyDescriptionAttribute AssemblyTitleAttribute

For those using source control, I think you'd need to rename the folder in source control too. For me, the above steps didn't do so.

When using TFS step 2 is actually to rename the folder in source control and then get the latest before reopening the sln.

The File Path property becomes editable in VS2010 after the folder has been renamed (and VS cannot find the project)

@AmyPatterson: I think your comment is significant enough to be its own answer. It's the only thing on this page that absolutely worked for me.

This didn't work for me in VS 2012; the property is readonly. I had to open the .sln file as text.

Jeff Walker Code Ranger

This is straightforward in Visual Studio 2015 (possibly works in older versions)

In Solution Explorer, right click on Main solution → Rename In Solution Explorer, right click on project (under solution) → Rename In Solution Explorer, double click, or right click on Properties → goto Application Tab, rename Assembly name and Default namespace to match. If you wish to also rename the namespace, open one of your class files. Right click the namespace → Rename.... This should search and replace all references to your namespace throughout the project. Close the project → rename the project folder. Edit the .sln file in Notepad, and change the path to the csproj, i.e., fu\bar.csproj → bar\bar.csproj.

You forgot to update project references in dependent projects (if any).

Remember to apply step 4 to the subproject folder (that was the only step missing for me so that step 6 worked).

As I read it, the question is not asking how to change the display name of the project in VS or the name of the .exe (maybe the asker had already done all this), but asking specifically how to rename the project folder (in the file system) and keep the .sln in sync. So only steps 5 and 6 seem relevant. But it does seem the best workaround for the lack of a way to do it from within VS.

In Visual 2019, at step 3), double click or right click on properties is ineffective, therefore, i can't go to "Application Tab"..

This worked for me, but just a note that the solution reference in the VS "Open recent" list will still point to the old folder name, giving the appearance that something is messed up. Use the "Open project or solution" wizard to open it fresh.

Peter Mortensen

There is another way doing this, using the *.sol, *csproj files.

Open your solution file. Search for the *.csproj you would like to change. It will be like this (relative to the *.sol file): Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "Shani.Commands.Impl", "Shani.Commands.Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl.csproj", "{747CFA4B-FC83-419A-858E-5E2DE2B948EE}" And just change the first part to the new diretory for example: Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl.csproj Of course, don't forget to move the whole project to that directory.

This worked for me, rather than the accepted answer, which did not work because the FilePath property was read-only for me.

thanks, this helped a lot. Also be sure to change the RootNamespace and AssemblyName values as well.

This did not work for me in VS2019. Gives warnings about project references not existing and compile errors about missing the namespaces and classes in the referenced project.

This works for me in Visual Studio 2019, with C# projects. It is a rather simple solution. For people who may be having problems when trying to compile, I recommend you fully rebuild the project instead of only compiling.

René

Man, have I struggled with this. Unfortunately there isn't a one click solution in Visual Studio, but if you're running Visual Studio 2012 and your project is under source control with Team Foundation Server, here is how I got it to work, while keeping the source history:

(Make sure you read @mjv's comment below, as he notes that you can skip step 5-10)

Make sure you have checked in all changes, so you have no pending changes. Remove the project from the solution, by right clicking and selecting Remove. Now, in Windows Explorer, rename the project folder. Go back to Visual Studio, and in Solution Explorer, right click the solution and choose Add -> Existing project. Select the project file for the project you removed in step 2, which should be located in the renamed folder. Now the project is back in the solution, but the project doesn't seem to be added to source control. To fix that, open Source Control Explorer. Find the project folder in Source Control Explorer, that corresponds with the project folder on your disk, that you renamed in step 3. Rename the folder in Source Control Explorer, so it has the same name as the project folder on disk. Now take a look at your pending changes. You should have changes to the solution file and a rename operation on the project folder. Do a rebuild and make sure everything compiles correctly. If you had inter-project references to the project you renamed, you need to add them again to the individual projects that referenced it. You should be all set now. Go and check everything in.

The above guide worked for me. If it doesn't work for you, try and delete your local solution completely, and remove the folder mapping in your workspace. Restart Visual Studio just in case. Make sure you actually deleted the whole solution from your computer. Now readd the solution mapping to your workspace and get the latest version. Now try the above steps. The same applies if something goes wrong while following the above steps. Just delete your solution locally and get the latest source, and you'll have a clean slate to work with.

If you're still having problems, make sure that you haven't changed anything manually in the solution file, or trying other 'tricks' before trying the above steps. If you have changed something and checked it in, you might want to consider doing a rollback to the point just before you started messing with the renaming of the project.

Of course, you'd also want to rename the project itself, in Solution Explorer. You can do this before the steps above, but in that case, make sure you check in that change before applying the steps above. You can also do it afterwards, but make sure you follow all the steps above first, and check in your changes before trying to rename the project name in Solution Explorer. I don't recommend trying to mix the above steps with a rename of the project name in Solution Explorer. It might work though, but I would recommand doing it in 2 separate changesets.

Thank you for introducing a procedure that works in VS2012! Note that you may avoid steps 5-10 (i.e. having to bring back the renamed folders within Source Control) if, instead, you close the solution and then rename the folders within VS' Source Control Explorer rather than Windows Explorer.

These steps were close but changing the folder location with Windows Explorer(WE) before renaming in Source Control Explorer(SCE) caused the error: Folder already exists. So I had to rename the folder again in WE then change it in SCE, then copy the files into that folder, before it worked. So follow the comment from mjv above. I also didn't think about needing to change the actual project file names (not just in VS) which I did as an afterthought making me repeat some of these steps.

This approach with mjv's comment works in Perforce with the right-click, Rename/Move option as well.

You can avoid breaking project references, see stackoverflow.com/a/10853509/10245

@TimAbell Have you tried that procedure in VS2012 and did it work for you? Before I originally wrote my answer, I tried that, but it didn't work for me, because the Project Path in the Properties window was always read only. And it didn't work editing the SLN file either.

Peter Mortensen

Currently, no. Well, actually you can click the broken project node and in the properties pane look for the property 'Path', click the small browse icon, and select the new path.

Voilà :)

Using VS2015, the "Unloaded Project Properties" property name is "File path" and the value is neither editable nor browsable.

Peter Mortensen

The simpler solution is the following:

Right-click the project and rename it. (optional) Open the project’s property settings and modify the assembly name (and optionally the default namespace) to use the new project name. (optional) Select the namespace name in a source file, right click and select Refactor/Rename to globally rename the namespace to the new project name. (optional) Open the AssemblyInfo.cs file and change the assembly name to match. Save and close the solution. Using Windows Explorer, rename the project folder to the new name. Open the SLN file in a text editor and find the one reference to the project path and change it to use the new folder name.

There are four needed steps, but seven recommended. At the end of the day though the project is renamed completely. Technically, the folder name for the project doesn’t have to match the project itself, so even that step is optional, but it can be confusing if they don’t match. The same for the assembly and namespace names.

Alternate step 7: Open the SLN file with VS, ignore warnings (click "OK"), select the project(s) in Solution Explorer, hit F4, update the file path. Optional Step 0: Right-click solution and rename it.

Unbelievable how hard Microsoft make some things

This worked for me on Visual Studio Community 2017. The accepted answer did not work (for me); the property that needed to be changed is read-only for me, and cannot be changed in the property dialog.

For an addin programing, I used this guide, but I had to additionally rename .manifest and .addin files including all instances of the old name in their source text.

Peter Mortensen

In andersjanmyr's answer it's easier to rename the project first.

Rename the project. Close the solution (save it). Rename the folders outside Visual Studio. Open the solution, ignoring the warnings. Go through all unavailable projects and set the property 'File Path' to the new location of your project file, i.e. someproject.csproj. Reload the project.

Also, after those steps are carried out, you might want to rename other references to your old project name.

In project properties, update the Assembly Name and Default Namespace.

This will update the following in the project file...

<RootNamespace>SomeProjectName</RootNamespace>
<AssemblyName>SomeProjectName</AssemblyName>

...and will get rid of the error "Namespace does not correspond to file location, should be: 'SomeProjectName'"

Rename your root namespace (if you have ReSharper right click the Namespace and go Refactor -> Rename).

Change all occurrences of your old project name in AssemblyInfo.cs.

Building upon this answer, you can manually edit the solution file so that the path to the project is your new path and avoid warnings upon opening the solution. You can probably click Project>Properties>AssemblyInfo to edit the assembly info from within VS and avoid editing AssemblyInfo.cs file.

Peter Mortensen

For those using Visual Studio + Git and wanting to keep the file history (works renaming both projects and/or solutions):

Close Visual Studio In the .gitignore file, duplicate all ignore paths of the project you want to rename with renamed versions of those paths. Use the Git move command like this: git mv See documentation for additional options: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-mv In your .sln file: Find the line defining your project and change the folder name in path. The line should look something like: Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "", "\.csproj" Open Visual Studio, and right click on project → Rename Afterwards, rename the namespaces. I read that ReSharper has some options for this. But simple find/replace did the job for me. Remove old .gitignore paths.

Peter Mortensen

For Visual Studio 2017 you can use my Visual Studio extension:

Download

It will rename the project in:

The project location folder

The solution file

References in other projects

The assembly name, information

The default namespace

awesome! tired of all the manual renames I have had to do in the past. Works well. Didn't find a string reference in another package however. Not sure if that is intentional.

thx. but I didn't understand the following: "string reference in another package". Can you explain it?

So I have a test project and I so I have [assembly: InternalsVisibleTo("MyTests")]. When I renamed MyTests, it didn't rename that reference. Again, I don't think this falls under your purview and it's easy to solve manually.

This extension assumes that the folder currently has the same name as the project (before renaming). If they differ, the renaming fail :( I also didn't get "Rename Namespaces" to work. Luckily, I only used it on quite small solutions. Otherwise, great!

@MassimilianoKraus I make the extension private, because of last negative reviews without explanation on marketplace. sorry for that. I have updated the link

Peter Mortensen

I just had to do this myself (using Visual Studio 2010). As some folks have answered, the simplest step seems to be:

Close the Visual Studio project. Open the .sln file and rename the project directory prefix for each of the .csproj occurrences. Save the .sln file Rename the actual project folder directory on your hard drive to match your changes in the .sln file. Open the .sln (in Visual Studio) and rebuild

This really seems the simplest way to do it, although I prefer to do step 4 before step 2.

RJN

Using Visual Studio 2019, I followed below steps to make the project name change successful:

Close the solution Rename the project folder to match with new project name Open solution file in notepad++ kind of editor and edit the FilePath with new project name folder Open the solution and click No if it ask whether you want to open from source control Right click the project which you want renaming and click Properties then change below: Change Assembly Name, Default Assembly namespace and Assembly information with new name Open any of the file and move the file to new namespace which will be done by all files If you have app.config kind of files then make sure to move them also in new namespace Rebuild it which will work successfully

On Visual Studio 2019, I can't find Assembly Name, Default Assembly namespace and Assembly information (in properties of the project) at step 5). Furthemore, your answer keeps the old name of the proj file.

alejandrob

A proven solution for Visual Studio extension for Data Tools for Business Intelligence (SSDT-BI 2013):

Move the Project folder to its new location (don't rename anything yet) In Solution Explorer, rename the Project / Solution. Close (and save) the newly-renamed project. Rename the project's folder and .sln file. Use a text editor and open the newly-renamed project solution file (.sln) (I used Notepad++) In line number 6 you'll see: "Project {fdjfksdjk4387!...} = "OLDPROJECT", "OLDFOLDER\OLDPROJECT.rptproj". Rename everything with the new names used in step 4. (i.e. ... = "NEWPROJECT", "NEWFOLDER\NEWPROJECT.rptproj"... ) That's it!

It was tested 100% and worked flawlessly in my case.

NOTE: I can't confirm if it works under different project templates and other Visual Studio versions. As always, do backup everything beforehand.

Peter Mortensen

What worked for me in Visual Studio 2017:

Close solution in Visual Studio

Rename the directories of projects in the solution. (push change in source control - Git in my case)

(push change in source control - Git in my case)

Edit the .sln file in a text editor (outside Visual Studio 2017) changing the name of the directory.

Reopen the solution in Visual Studio

It said something like "re-adding project". I rebuilt everything and everything was good to go.

Additionally you may need to remove the old project from the dependencies of other projects and re-add the newly renamed project as a new dependency (Right click on the old project >> Remove, then right click on Dependencies >> Add reference >> Select your new project)

Peter Mortensen

See item 3 in the linked article.

Close the solution and the IDE. In Windows Explorer: Change the directory name to the new name. In Windows Explorer: Open the .sln file with a text editor. Change the directory name to the new name and save. Restart the IDE and open the solution from menu File → Recent Files menu if it doesn't start automatically. Click on the project folder in Solution Explorer and check the path property in the properties at the bottom. It will now be referencing to the new project folder.

It worked for me.

Peter Mortensen

I've had to do this lots of times. It's really useful to be able to repurpose an existing project, but be able to rename text in namespaces, files, and folders (including file / directory names).

Using a recursive find and replace starting at the root folder means the rename doesn't break links to projects in the solution files and project references.

To this end, I have created a project to do just this. The application also makes an effort to ignore version control folders such as .git, .svn and the .vs settings file. More information is in the README.

https://github.com/garethrbrown/vs-project-rename

https://i.imgur.com/ihBY1aL.png

Nice work! Your project is actually a renaming tool. I think one thing really is missing: a match whole word option.

Modern Ronin

I just solved this problem for myself writing a global dotnet tool (that also takes into account git+history).

Install via dotnet tool install -g ModernRonin.ProjectRenamer, use with renameproject <oldName> <newName>.

Documentation/Tinkering/PRs at

https://github.com/ModernRonin/ProjectRenamer

meanwhile the tool also deals with moving projects to different directories etc.

This tool worked perfectly for my project. Thank you for this!

Glad it helped :-)

Joe Moore

This worked well for me in Visual Studio 2019.

Rename the solution, projects in Visual Studio by simply single clicking on the file names as normal. Rename the namespaces in Visual Studio. Rename the desired elements on the main project page (publish location, application, default namespace, whatever). As noted correctly, this does nothing for the folders, but it does rename the project files and keeps everything tied together in Visual Studio. Close Visual Studio. Rename the folders. Open Visual Studio and reply 'no' to getting projects from Source Control. Delete the unloaded project references. Add each project back in using Add existing project from Solution. This tied everything together and the project built for me.

Please comment on and correct anything above that does not work.

NepoKale

This is how I renamed my existing project in VS19.

Close the visual studio project Rename and open the each project folder name on your drive Rename each .csproj Open .sln file and rename the project directory prefix for each of the .csproj occurrences. Open the .sln file in visual studio and rebuild Update prevoius nameSpace refrence with new one by going through each file or using ReplaceAll

Peter Mortensen

Note: This fix is for Visual Studio 2008, but it should work here.

Using Windows Explorer, rename both the solution folders (the parent folder and the child folder) to the new solution name. Delete the .sln file located in the parent folder. In Visual Studio, select menu File ► Open Project. Drill into the new folder you just renamed and open the .csproj file (located in the child folder). Right-click the project name and rename it to what you want. (It should be the same name as the folder in step 1.) Select menu File ► Close Solution. A dialog will ask if you want to save changes to the .sln file. Click Yes. In the Save File As dialog, point to the newly renamed parent folder and click Save. (Note: Make sure the .sln file has the same name as the folder. It is not required, but it maintains consistency.)

Done.

Peter Mortensen

I have written a small tool that automates all these steps. It also supports Subversion for now.

Information about current releases can be found at Visual Studio Project Renamer Infos.

The latest releases can now be downloaded from the Visual Studio Project Renamer Download Page.

Feedback is much appreciated.

Peter Mortensen

I often had the same problem of renaming a project in Visual Studio and editing the folder name, project name, and .sln file in order to accomplish that. I just wrote a VBScript script that accomplishes all that. You have to be careful with the strings you choose for replacing.

You just have to put the .vbs file in the same directory as the .sln file of the solution.

' Script parameters'
Solution = "Rename_Visual_Studio_Project" '.sln'
Project = "Rename_Visual_Studio_Project" '.csproj'
NewProject = "SUCCESS"

Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2

Set objFso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
scriptDirr = objFso.GetParentFolderName(wscript.ScriptFullName)

' Rename the all project references in the .sln file'
Set objFile = objFso.OpenTextFile(scriptDirr + "\" + Solution + ".sln", ForReading)
fileText = objFile.ReadAll
newFileText = Replace(fileText, Project, NewProject)
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(scriptDirr + "\" + Solution + ".sln", ForWriting)
objFile.WriteLine(newFileText)
objFile.Close

' Rename the .csproj file'
objFso.MoveFile scriptDirr + "\" + Project + "\" + Project + ".csproj", scriptDirr + "\" + Project + "\" + NewProject + ".csproj"

' Rename the folder of the .csproj file'
objFso.MoveFolder scriptDirr + "\" + Project, scriptDirr + "\" + NewProject

Peter Mortensen

Rename the project in the solution and the project folder Delete the project from the solution Add the existing project to the solution (your renamed project)

It works for me. TFS will also track the new project.

KushalSeth

I am recently working on .Net 6 project with VS2022. and I need to rename my templatemicroservice to my UserMicroservice.

.Net 6 changes most of the things for you. like AssemblyNames and NameSpaces. Also, it changes the ProjectName references in .sln automatically. So, this answer will really help you to rename your service with no hurdles.

https://i.stack.imgur.com/83gqs.png

So, Steps I followed:

Open the solution in Visual Studio and did these steps:

I renamed my solution by right clicking on it. like, TemplateServiceSolution to UserServiceSolution. Renamed all the Projects in solution by right clicking on them. like, TemplateService to UserService. In a specific project, I searched the namespaces like: namespace TemplateService and replaced all by namespace UserService. Do this step in each project. Open your launchsettings.json, and rename anything related to old service, as I had few things in profiles of launchsettings.json. Just to be sure, please check your startup and program.cs files as well, I didn't have any changes in them.

Closed the solution from Visual Studio and did these steps:

Closed the solution, and opened the File Explorer. Renamed all my project folders from TemplateService to UserService. Open the .sln in notepad/notepad++, and must change the Folder Structure name. like for a particular project, I should give the correct .csproj paths. as shown in image, I need to rename TemplateService to UserService.

Open the solution in Visual Studio. Most of your Dependencies will be loaded as soon as you Load your solution in Visual Studio Code. and you are ready.

Peter Mortensen

When using TFS, step 2 is actually to rename the folder in source control and then get the latest before reopening the solution.

Peter Mortensen

There's a simpler approach which was tested in Visual Studio 2013 Update 1 and applicable for TFS-connected projects:

Open Visual Studio, but let the solution be closed.

Open Source Explorer and rename the desired folder (the solution will be closed for you if you didn't already close it first).

Right-click on the solution (from Source Explorer also) and select check-in.

Open the solution. You'll be told that there're new projects added. Accept to get the changes.

Remove the project from the solution and add it again, and then check-in.

Check that the internal references are OK.

Peter Mortensen

We recently uploaded a beta of a free Visual Studio extension which does this stuff for you.

Have a look at Visual Studio Gallery: Gallery Download

Peter Mortensen

Well, I did it my way

Close Visual Studio 2012

Rename your subdirectory to the preferred name under .sln

Delete the *.suo file

Open the solution again, and fix any properties of Project(s) loaded to meet the new subdirectory name

Peter Mortensen

Rename the project outside Visual Studio. Edit your_project_name.sln with a text editor, and rename the path to the new path.

That seems similar to the current solution and a little more difficult.

Peter Mortensen

Open .sln in a text editor, and in the following line change to your new folder name Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "Ricky", "\.csproj", "{021CC6B0-8CFB-4194-A103-C19AF869D965}"

Ziad

Go to the .sln file, right click, open with Notepad++ (or any editor; Notepad++ is the fastest), find the path, change it.

This is not enough for a C++ project with Visual Studio 2019, it induces failure during the loading of the project.

How can I rename a project folder from within Visual Studio?

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