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Add an existing file to a project without copying it.

Written by: Darren Stokes at 3/18/2008 4:44:20 AM

A few months ago, I posted an article on my blog explaining Versioning Multiple Assemblies by changing one partial AssemblyInfo file.

Periodically, I get email asking how to add an existing file without having Visual Studio copy the file into the project directory, which is the default behavior.

If you want to add an existing file to a project and have the project point to the file where it resides, press the little arrow key on the right side of the add button on the add existing dialog. The arrow will present a small context menu that allows the option of adding the file as a link, which will cause the Visual Studio project to point to that file where it is instead of copying it to the project directory.

-Darren