How to "Build” item in Windows Explorer's context menu of a VS solution file?

Question

I am using Windows 10 x64 with Visual Studio 2017 Community.

How do I build a project or solution from windows explorer without the need to open visual studio just to build it?

I found this on stackoverflow but it is old.

Any new tools or techniques I'm unaware of?

Thanks

Answer 1

Any new tools or techniques I'm unaware of?

There are no more new tools here except the MSBuildShellExtension v2.0. This development of MSBuildShellExtension tool is based on MSBuild command line. If you want to develop a new tools for building a project or solution from windows explorer, you can develop the new tool based on the principle of MSBuild command line. You can refer to MSBuild Command-Line for more detail.

If you don`t want to develop a new tool, the MSBuild command line is a good recommendation, which has been able to complete the build project very well without the need to open Visual Studio.

You can launch the Command Prompt from the start menu, Switch to the MSBuild.exe path for Visual Studio 2017: C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2017\\Professional\\MSBuild\\15.0\\Bin , then use MSBuild command line: MSBuild.exe MyProject.proj . You can also use MSBuild.exe to perform more complex builds.

Hope this can help you.