Creating a Blank Solution for Visual Studio 2005 and 2008
Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 don’t have a way to create a blank solution (at least that I can see). So, I opened up one of my existing solutions, deleted everything in it, and came up with my own template.
Here is an empty solution for Visual Studio 2008:
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 10.00 # Visual Studio 2008 Global GlobalSection(SolutionProperties) = preSolution HideSolutionNode = FALSE EndGlobalSection EndGlobal
Here is an empty solution for Visual Studio 2005:
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 9.00 # Visual Studio 2005 Global GlobalSection(SolutionConfigurationPlatforms) = preSolution EndGlobalSection GlobalSection(ProjectConfigurationPlatforms) = postSolution EndGlobalSection GlobalSection(SolutionProperties) = preSolution HideSolutionNode = FALSE EndGlobalSection EndGlobal
Simply create a file with a .sln extension (e.g. My.sln), and paste the above text into it. Like magic, you now have a blank solution.
Thanks to Travis Illig for letting me know that the solution file must be saved in “UTF-8 with a Byte Order Mark and using CR/LF line endings. If you don’t do those three magic things, the shell extension that determines which version of VS to open won’t work.”
