Disable Visual Studio's validation of non-xml files that look like xml?

Question

I have a bunch of Velocity template files in a Visual Studio 2008 project, the problem is that despite the fact that the extension is .vm instead of .xml<

Answer 1

Have you tried: right-click on a .VM file, select Properties. There you can change the Build Action, you might want to set it to either Content or None.

Answer 2

I add a comment as the first line of the vm file, that way the file doesn't begin with a < and VS doesn't think it's an xml file.

Just add ## as the first line of every file then close and reopen it.

Answer 3

Xml errors usually only show if the file is open.

You can normally disable it by not opening it into the xml editor; the errors don't normally stop a build - they just look like they do. Right click -> Open With... Source (Text) Editor (or HTML if you prefer) (and set as default).