Question: A Microsoft product that thinks it knows what's best for me? Perish!

ChasFile — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 08:13:00 -0800

When I do Add -> Existing Web Site in Visual Studio 2008, if the existing site was created in an earlier version of .net (say 2.0 and I'm running 3.5) Visual Studio automatically starts an update wizard to convert the site to 3.5. How do I turn off this behavior so that it simply imports the web site without updating it? I know this is possible because the first time I did this it happened flawlessly, but at the time I didn't un-check the "automatically update sites next time" check box. Gah.

By: cschneid

cschneid — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 08:41:15 -0800

I don't have it next to me, so I can't tell you for sure, but you can always downgrade it back once it's opened.

There are 2 things to watch out for.

1) The project version. 2008 stores metadata differently than 2003 or 2005. So once you upgrade the project to 2008, you probably can't downgrade it back. This has bitten me when working with other developers.

2) The .NET target. This affects the deployment environment, and what APIs are available. If you right click the project, and dig through the settings, there's one where you can define what the target .NET version is. It'll make sure to import the correct library versions (verify that under the imports section of the project tree), and will keep you from using new APIs (ie, lambdas, etc.).

My terminology here is all wrong, but that's basically what I did to deal with it (just re-downgrade).

Comments on: A Microsoft product that thinks it knows what's best for me? Perish!

Question: A Microsoft product that thinks it knows what's best for me? Perish!

By: cschneid