Some imported namespaces have a disabled (greyed) check mark

Question

Using VS Community 2022, I have a VB Windows Forms Project. In Project, Properties, References, I see about a dozen namespaces with a check mark indicating they are imported into my project. So far so good.

Three of them (System.Drawing, System.Windows.Forms, and System.Math) are checked with an enabled check mark meaning I can uncheck them. The rest have a disabled check mark (greyed out) meaning I can't uncheck them.

This appears to be a difference between VS 2019 (check marks always enabled) and VS 2022 (some enabled, some not). I would like to trim my namespace imports to a minimum, and I don't mind fully qualifying rarely used names. So how do I remove an import that VS has added but won't let me remove?

Answer 1

Hi @Andrew Mercer ,

In Visual Studio Community 2022, some namespaces are essential for the project and are automatically included, which is why their check marks are greyed out and cannot be unchecked. However, you can still manage your imports to some extent. Here are a few steps you can take:

1. Remove Unnecessary Imports in Code Files:
   • You can manually remove unnecessary imports from individual code files. Look for the Imports statements at the top of your VB files and remove any that are not needed.
2. Use Fully Qualified Names:
   • Instead of importing entire namespaces, you can use fully qualified names for rarely used classes. This way, you can avoid importing the namespace altogether.
3. User Imports:
   • You can add specific classes as user imports instead of entire namespaces. This can be done in the Project Designer under the References tab. Enter the full name of the class you wish to import in the text box below the Imported Namespaces list and click the "Add user import" button.
4. Project File Editing:
   • As a more advanced option, you can manually edit the project file (.vbproj) to remove certain imports. However, this should be done with caution as it might affect the project’s functionality.

If you need more detailed guidance, you can refer to Add or remove imported namespaces (Visual Basic).

Best Regards.

Jiachen Li

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