Remove unused references

Question

I want to know if any tool exists for removing unused references (not unused using directives) within a .NET C# project.

Answer 1

Resharper will certainly do the trick...

Answer 2

JetBrains Resharper adds a menu item Remove Unused References to the References node's context menu in the Solution Explorer.

When you click it, it'll scan you project and list references which can be removed. You can further select which ones you want to remove.

Answer 3

Resharper has that option.

Answer 4

ResolveUR - Resolve Unused Referencese Unused References

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=battas.ResolveUR-ResolveUnusedReferences

Works with Visual Studio 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019

Answer 5

I am unaware of such a tool off the top of my head - I do know that Visual Studio does not include one by default. However, referenced assemblies that are not actually used by code in the project are automatically removed by the C# compiler from the list of assemblies referenced by the compiled program. If you use Reflector, you can compare the list of actual references to the list of references in the project, and remove the unnecessary ones that the project includes based on that.

Answer 6

Check out the Productivity Power-tool Plugin

Removing unused references from project is one of the many helpful features it has. It is free and it has some of the R# features.