How to determine the project type in Visual Studio?

Question

How can one determine the "type" of a project in Visual Studio?

For example, if a project is a class library, a web application project, a WinForms project, a WCF project, etc. The icons are obviously different for a lot of them, but is there anywhere where it states the project type?

Answer 1

One simple trick is drag and drop project file in notepad and where you can see this kind of stuff<

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">   <PropertyGroup>`enter code here`     <Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == '' ">Debug</Configuration>     <Platform Condition=" '$(Platform)' == '' ">x86</Platform>     <ProductVersion>8.0.30703</ProductVersion>     <SchemaVersion>2.0</SchemaVersion>     <ProjectGuid>{27F8327B-239F-4125-809C-13FB6209D2E3}</ProjectGuid>     <OutputType>WinExe</OutputType>`enter code here`     <AppDesignerFolder>Properties</AppDesignerFolder>     <RootNamespace>WpfApplication1</RootNamespace>     <AssemblyName>WpfApplication1</AssemblyName>     <TargetFrameworkVersion>v4.0</TargetFrameworkVersion>     <TargetFrameworkProfile>Client</TargetFrameworkProfile>     <FileAlignment>512</FileAlignment>     <ProjectTypeGuids>{60dc8134-eba5-43b8-bcc9-bb4bc16c2548};{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}</ProjectTypeGuids>     <WarningLevel>4</WarningLevel>   </PropertyGroup> 

Compare "ProjectTypeGuid" with this Link. by changing this guid you can add WPF window to WinForms project.

Answer 2

If the .csproj file has no <ProjectTypeGuids>

As Alex McMillan has pointed out, you could not be able to find the <ProjectTypeGuids> element.

The first answer is correct, except for .dll Library Projects, Console Applications and WinForms Applications as far I know.

They contain <OutputType> (followed by: Library or Exe or WinExe)

and do not contain <ProjectTypeGuids>.