Can I configure Visual Studio to use real folders instead of filters in C++ projects?

Question

It's annoying to have to separately maintain a .filters file to make Visual Studio happy, as well as my project's on-disk layout. Is it possible to tell VS to use real folders, like it does for C#?

Answer 1

In the Solution Explorer in Visual Studio, just click the toolbar button called 'Show All Files'.

That does exactly what you want.

EDIT(Billy O'Neal): Added image for others so they don't have to hunt...
_{(source: billy-oneal.com )}

Answer 2

As an extra tidbit, there is a bug that a few teams and I that were in a class together ran into where disabling the "show all files" option would crash VS10. As of right now there isn't a definite fix, but it seams to be due certain VS specific files being listed when they should not be, or at least that's what the Microsoft Connect said.

As a workaround, please go to Tools - Options - Projects and Solutions - VC++ Project settings and add .vcxproj and .filters to 'Extentions To Hide' there.

Thanks very much to Aly Hirani on Microsoft Connect for help.

Answer 3

I haven't tried it myself, but are filters only on file extension, or can you match "Dir1/*" with a solution folder?

The other option would be to have a script (preferably a VS extension) update the .filters automatically.