How to convert a VS 2013 project to be able to run in VS 2005?

Question

I have a Visual Studio 2013 solution, and I would like to make it work with Visual Studio 2005. How can I downgrade the solution file?

I noted this line in the .sln file:

MinimumVisualStudioVersion = 10.0.40219.1

However, changing this line to 8.x.xxxxx.x, lower than my Visual Studio version number, still failed with the same error.

Answer 1

Open the .sln and project files with a text editor, Notepad will do fine. The .sln file is the easier nut to crack, it has not changed much over the years. You'll see something like this at the top of the file:

Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 12.00
# Visual Studio 2013
VisualStudioVersion = 12.0.21005.1
MinimumVisualStudioVersion = 10.0.40219.1

Followed by a list of the projects and the configurations. The "Format Version" is the most important value, if it is a mismatch with the VS version then it will quickly fail to load the solution. Values are 8.00 = VS2005, 9.00 = VS2008, 10.00 = VS2010, 11.00 = VS2012, 12.00 = VS2013

The lines that mention the VS versions were late additions, first added in VS2012 to support the feature where VS can open old projects without having to upgrade them. Just delete these lines.

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Then you'll have to tackle the project files, they are certainly the harder nut to crack. You did not mention the language you are using, it does matter rather a lot.

First off, if this is a C, C++ or C++/CLI project (high likelihood given the request) then stop right now. Versions of Visual Studio prior to VS2010 used a non-standard build system for those languages, driven by the VCBuild.exe build tool. The .vcproj file format was very different and does not resemble the later .vcxproj file format at all. Only re-creating the .vcproj file from scratch is a sane approach.

If it is a .csproj or .vbproj file then you'll have a shot at it. The best way to go about it is to start a new project in VS2005 so the core entries in the file (Project, Import and PropertyGroup items) have a reasonable value. Then copy/paste the ItemGroups from the VS2013 project file. You'll get the correct reference assemblies and source files that way.

Answer 2

As Visual studio doesnt support for downgrade, you can't do it directly or by changing any file, I suggest better way to do is create another project in visual studio 2005 and import all files in it.

You can do this only if you didn't used any higher version libraries in your project than VS2005