How to rename solution, solution folder, project folder, package/filter folder and vcxproj file in Visual Studio 2012

Question

I've having problems doing any of these above with my game project. There are plenty of answer online already and I looked through all of them but they didn't work for me or having different scenario. Here is my situation:

This is what my solution looks like. I changed the project name from X-Power to Neo_Elements within the visual studio, which works. But it doesn't affect the actual physical folder.

The physical file path and name for the .vcxproj file is ...\Neo_Elements\WorldScrollingGame\WorldScrollingGame.vcxproj.

The physical file path and name for the .sln file is ...\Neo_Elements\X-Power.sln

What I want to do:

1. Rename the solution to Neo_Elements (hence the .sln file will change accordingly)

2. Change the file path to ...\Neo_Elements\Neo_Elements\...

3. Rename the .vcxproj file to Neo_Elements.vcxproj

So after the change the .sln file path and name should be ...\Neo_Elements\Neo_Elements.sln

the .vcxproj file path and name should be ...\Neo_Elements\Neo_Elements\Neo_Elements.vcxproj

The solution and project name will both be Neo_Elements

What I did:

1. Rename the solution within Visual studio by F2 on the solution name.

What Happened:

The project no longer builds and creates bunch of compile error like this:

fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'stdafx.h': No such file or directory
fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'resource.h': No such file or directory

I didn't even change the physical folder and I had no idea why the file cannot be found, and the location of the file missing seemed totally random to me. (not only those under \WorldScrollingGame but also some at deeper levels. Also lots of files were affected but only few files cannot be found). When I tried to change the solution name back to X-Power it turns out that I cannot. It says "The solution cannot be renamed because solution files with the specified name already exist", despite the fact that there is no X-Power.sln anymore. Nevertheless I've been completely stuck here and had to restore the entire solution from a backup (or change the name of .sln file manually in windows explorer). First attempt failed.

Then I started trying the second by change project folder outside VS.

What I did:

I followed this link: closed VS, renamed the project director outside VS, edited .sln in text editor changing "X-Power", "WorldScrollingGame\WorldScrollingGame.vcxproj" to "X-Power", "Neo_Elements\WorldScrollingGame.vcxproj" (strangely the X-Power should be Neo_Elements since I edited the project name within VS, but somehow it didn't reflect the change here, unless this isn't a reflection of project name which by no means should be the case according to that link. But I didn't want to mess with the solution name now because of what happened before).

What Happened:

It turns out I still receive bunch of compilation error similar to the one I got for my first attempt, no idea how to solve those.

So I didn't bother try the 3rd one since I don't even know how to

Please help! Really can't get around with these few.

Edit: I know it might be better just to start of a new one and migrate all the files, but I've been unable to do the renaming in any situation before -- even a single solution renaming or a single project directory renaming. So I want to take this chance and figure out how this actually work, as it seemed to have worked for a lot of people

Answer 1

The reason you are getting the message

"The solution cannot be renamed because solution files with the specified name already exist"

is probably because there is a '.sln' file with the same name in the root folder, or there are files related to that old solution still left in the project folders.

In the solution root folder find the '.vs' folder. Look for a folder with the same name that you are trying to name your solution to. Delete that folder.