How to determine the .NET project type in Visual Studio?

Question

Could you please tell me how to determine the type of an existing .NET project in Visual Studio? By the project type I mean: C# application, WPF application, etc.

I have been transfered a bunch of projects from my coworker. There are many Library projects, each of them does a separate job such as: Declare entities, do sync.

All of them have the same icon on Visual Studio Solution Explorer. I just want to know which template these projects based on.

Answer 1

I guess by project type you think of the project template used to create the project...

to find the output type right click on Project -> Properties -> Application -> Output Type

As for the difference between c# and other projects: c# project files have the file extension .csproj while ie VB projects use .vbproj

Answer 2

One of the XML Tags inside the project's .csproj/.vbproj file is the <ProjectTypeGuids> element.
This tag holds the type of the project.

Here is a translation from the GUID to the type of the project

So a WPF project, written in C# will have 2 GUIDs, one for WPF and one for C#:

<ProjectTypeGuids>{60dc8134-eba5-43b8-bcc9-bb4bc16c2548};{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}</ProjectTypeGuids>

Yet a WPF project in VB.Net will look like this:

<ProjectTypeGuids>{60dc8134-eba5-43b8-bcc9-bb4bc16c2548};{F184B08F-C81C-45F6-A57F-5ABD9991F28F}</ProjectTypeGuids>

Notice the first GUID is the same since it's a WPF application, the second GUID changed to reflect C# vs VB.Net

Answer 3

Easy solution.

If you want to know if it's a WCF Project or ASP.NET Web Service simply open your project's folders in File Explorer. You can hover over the icon with your mouse and a tooltip will display the project type as shown in the picture. Also, you can look under the Type column in File Explorer and it shows it there as well.

WCF Web Service Project:

ASP.NET Web Service Project:

Also to note, if your project has a Resources.Designer.cs or Settings.Designer.cs in its Properties folder it's likely a WinForms application.

Answer 4

To determine if a project is an application vs a library find the Output Type. In Visual Studio:

1. Right click on the project
2. Click Properties > Application > Look under "Output type:"
3. It will be a "Console Application", "Windows Application", or "Class Library"