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How to: Edit Common Properties for Solutions

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The Common Properties settings in the Solution Property Pages dialog box help you to organize what are included in different builds of a project or solution. Here are several typical ways to use these properties.

To edit Common Properties in the Solution Property Pages

  1. In the Solution Explorer, select a solution.

  2. Choose Property Pages on the View menu.

  3. In the Solution Property Pages dialog box, select a set of Common Properties from the pane on the left.

  4. Enter values for the properties displayed on the right.

To determine how multiple projects run when you start the debugger

  1. Open the Solution Property Pages dialog box.

  2. Select Startup Project set under Common Properties.

  3. In the pane on the right, select Multiple Startup Project.

  4. In the Action field for each project, select a start option:

    Start   Run the project when you start the debugger

    Start without debugging   Run the project when you start the debugger, but do not debug this project.

    None   Do not start this project when you run the debugger.

To set the order in which multiple projects run when you start the debugger

  1. Open the Solution Property Pages dialog box.

  2. Select the Startup Project set under Common Properties.

  3. In the pane on the right, select Multiple Startup Project.

  4. Select a project, and then click Move Up to run that project earlier when you start the debugger, or click Move Down to run the project later.

To make one project dependent upon another

  1. Open the Solution Property Pages dialog box.

  2. Select the Project Dependencies set of Common Properties.

  3. Select a project in the current solution on the Project dropdown menu.

  4. In the Depends on field below, select the check boxes of any other projects that must be built first, before this project is built.

To use Project Dependencies to set the order in which projects are built

  1. Open the Solution Property Pages dialog box.

  2. Select the Project Dependencies set under Common Properties.

  3. Select the project you want to build last in the Project dropdown menu.

  4. In the Depends on window, select the check boxes beside all projects you want to build before this one.

  5. Select the project you want to build next-to-last in the Project drop-down menu.

  6. In the Depends on window, select all projects you want to build before this one.

  7. Continue this process, working backwards from the last project built to the first, until there is no Depends on option listed for the project that will be built first.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Create and Edit Configurations

How to: Prepare and Manage Builds

Concepts

Build Configurations

Other Resources

Startup Project, Common Properties, Solution Property Pages Dialog Box

Project Dependencies, Common Properties, Solution Property Pages Dialog Box

Configuration, Configuration Properties, Solution Property Pages Dialog Box