How to change the "Inherited Values" in Property Page in Visual Studio 2012 Express

Question

I downloaded the source for a library I want to include in a project I am working on. In the Properties Page > Config Properties > C/C++ > Preprocessor. Click Edit from the Preprocessor Definitions drop down menu.

The bottom half of the dialog shows "Inherited values", these are read only. I would like to know where these values are set, so that I can edit them.

Answer 1

Those settings can come from a couple of places. Some of them come from settings elsewhere in your project. For example, if you set Project->Properties->General->Character Set to "Use Multi-byte Character Set" you will see _MBCS appear in the inherited values list. These settings can also come from property files (.props) that are included in your properties hierarchy. You can see these by navigating to the Property Manager tab. There are other sneaky ways as well. For example I have a .props file where I had to hack some directly in the .props file and as a result they don't show up in Property Manager. There may be some more ways but those are a few that I am aware of.

Answer 2

I think the best way to modify "Inherited values" is to go with View->Property Manager and then navigate to YourProject->|, double-click Microsoft.Cpp..user and search for settings you want to change.