How do you tell the Visual Studio project type from an existing Visual Studio project

Question

Using Visual Studio 2005.

Is there anything in the .sln or .vcproj files (or anywhere else) that defines the project type / subtype?

Edit: What I mean is th

Answer 1

Some further research and I found this:

INFO: List of known project type Guids.

My .sln file contains:

Visual Studio 2005
Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "AddNumbers", "AddNumbers.csproj", "{2C81C5BB-E3B0-457E-BC02-73C76634CCD6}"

The link shows:

Project Type Description Project Type Guid
Windows (C#) {FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}

So it's Windows C# and the subtype is as per @HardCode's reply. In my case, it's "Console Application".

Answer 2

The .vproj file defines the project type, for example, the following defines a C++ project.

<VisualStudioProject
   ProjectType="Visual C++"

The project tag also includes the compiler version.

Answer 3

1. Right Click on Project of a solution.
2. Open Properties -> Application Tab.
3. On the right you can see 'Output Type' which defines your project type of an existing solution.

Answer 4

Right click on solution and click open folder in file explorer. Navigate to Project file. hover on it, tool tip displays the type of project file.

Answer 5

In the project XML files:

Console applications contain:

<OutputType>Exe</OutputType>

WinForms applications contain:

<OutputType>WinExe</OutputType>

Library (.dll) projects contain:

<OutputType>Library</OutputType>

and do NOT contain a

<ProjectTypeGuids>

ASP.NET and WCF projects contain:

<ProjectTypeGuids>{603c0e0b-db56-11dc-be95-000d561079b0};{349c5851-65df-11da-9384-00065b846f21};{fae04ec0-301f-11d3-bf4b-00c04f79efbc}</ProjectTypeGuids>
<OutputType>Library</OutputType>

The GUIDs do something to define exactly what type of project it is. The ones above were taken from an ASP.NET app. They exist in WCF projects too, and flipping around the GUIDs can fool Vis Studio into changing the project type when you open it.

Answer 6

If you are interested in finding subtypes of a project i.e. Under C# Windows Project Category, checking whether it is a Windows Form Application or WPF

Try adding new item in the project and it will show you the items specific to that project type along with default options.

For instance if there is a WPF project it shows the WPF related options like 'Window' , 'Page' 'User Control' ... In case of Window Form Application it Shows 'Window Form' etc.....