Develop code in Visual Studio without projects or solutions
03/11/2024
You can open code from nearly any type of directory-based project into Visual
Studio without the need for a solution or project file. This means you can, for
example, clone a repo on GitHub, open it directly into Visual Studio, and begin
developing, without having to create a solution or project. If needed, you can
specify custom build tasks and launch parameters through simple JSON files.
After you open your code files in Visual Studio, Solution Explorer displays all the
files in the folder. You can click on any file to begin editing it. In the
background, Visual Studio starts indexing the files to enable IntelliSense,
navigation, and refactoring features. As you edit, create, move, or delete files,
Visual Studio tracks the changes automatically and continuously updates its
IntelliSense index. Code will appear with syntax colorization and, in many cases,
include basic IntelliSense statement completion.
Note
If you're looking for information that's specific to VS Code, visit the Getting
started with Visual Studio Code page.
Open any code
You can open code into Visual Studio in the following ways:
On the Visual Studio menu bar, choose File > Open > Folder, and then browse to the
code location.
On the context (right-click) menu of a folder containing code, choose the Open in
Visual Studio command.
Choose the Open Folder link on the start window.
Important
Not all code can be opened by using the Open Folder link from the Visual Studio
start window. For example, if your code file was saved as part of a solution—in
other words, in an .sln file—you must use one of the other options listed here to
open your code.
If you are a keyboard user, press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+O in Visual Studio.
Open code from a cloned GitHub repo.
To open multiple folders
Starting in Visual Studio 2022 version 17.9 Preview 1, you can specify multiple
folders to open in Visual Studio. Opening multiple folders is especially useful in
code repos with lots of unrelated code, and a developer only needs a subset to do
some work.
On the Visual Studio menu bar, choose File > Open > Workspace, and then browse to
the .code-workspace file location.
The .code-workspace file itself is expected to be a .JSON schema, which looks like
the following:
JSON
Copy
{
"folders" : [
{
"path" : "some\\child\\foo",
"name" : "The Foo"
},
{
"path" : "..\\..\\some\\unrelated\\bar"
},
{
"path" : "C:\\a\\full\\path\\baz"
},
{
"path" : "${env.ANY_ENV_VARIABLE}\\foobar"
}
]
}
Each "path" value can be any relative path or rooted path. Rooted paths must be on
the same drive letter. Environment variables can be used with the syntax $
{env.ANY_ENV_VARIABLE}. The "name" property can be used to create a visual alias
for the folder in the Solution Explorer.
To open code from a cloned GitHub repo
The following example shows how to clone a GitHub repo and then open its code in
Visual Studio. To follow this procedure, you must have a GitHub account and Git for
Windows installed on your system. See Create a GitHub account to use with Visual
Studio and Git for Windows for more information.
Go to the repo you want to clone on GitHub.
Choose the Clone or Download button and then choose the Copy to Clipboard button in
the dropdown menu to copy the secure URL for the GitHub repo.
GitHub clone button
Use Git in Visual Studio
As of Visual Studio 2019 version 16.8, we introduced a new, streamlined Git
interface that you can use to interact with your files on GitHub. To learn more,
visit the Visual Studio version control docs.
Use Team Explorer in Visual Studio
You can still use Team Explorer in Visual Studio 2022 and in Visual Studio 2019
version 16.8 and later. However, you might find it easier to use the new Git
experience. For more information, see How Visual Studio makes version control easy
with Git.
In Visual Studio, choose the Team Explorer tab to open Team Explorer. If you don't
see the tab, open it from View > Team Explorer.
In Team Explorer, under the Local Git Repositories section, choose the Clone
command and then paste the URL of the GitHub page into the text box.
Clone the project
Choose the Clone button to clone the project's files to a local Git repository.
Depending on the size of the repo, this process could take several minutes.
After the repo has been cloned to your system, in Team Explorer, choose the Open
command on the context (right-click) menu of the newly cloned repo.
Cloned repo
Choose the Show Folder View command to view the files in Solution Explorer.
Show folder view
You can now browse folders and files in the cloned repo, and view and search the
code in the Visual Studio code editor, complete with syntax colorization and other
features.
Run and debug your code
You can debug your code in Visual Studio without a project or solution! To debug
some languages, you may need to specify a valid startup file in the codebase, such
as a script, executable, or project. The drop-down list box next to the Start
button on the toolbar lists all of the startup items that Visual Studio detects, as
well as items you specifically designate. Visual Studio runs this code first when
you debug your code.
Configuring your code to run in Visual Studio differs depending on what kind of
code it is, and what the build tools are.
Codebases that use MSBuild
MSBuild-based codebases can have multiple build configurations that appear in the
Start button's drop-down list. Select the file that you want to use as the startup
item, and then choose the Start button to begin debugging.
Note
For C# and Visual Basic codebases, you must have the .NET desktop development
workload installed. For C++ codebases, you must have the Desktop development with
C++ workload installed.
Codebases that use custom build tools
If your codebase uses custom build tools, then you must tell Visual Studio how to
build your code using build tasks that are defined in a .json file. For more
information, see Customize build and debug tasks.
Codebases that contain Python or JavaScript code
If your codebase contains Python or JavaScript code, you don't have to configure
any .json files, but you do have to install the corresponding workload. You must
also configure the startup script:
Install the [Link] development or Python development workload by choosing Tools >
Get Tools and Features, or by closing Visual Studio and running the Visual Studio
Installer.
[Link] and Python development workloads
In Solution Explorer, on the right-click or context menu of a JavaScript or Python
file, choose the Set as Startup Item command.
Choose the Start button to begin debugging.
Codebases that contain C++ code
For information about opening C++ code without solutions or projects in Visual
Studio, see Open Folder projects for C++.
Codebases that contain a Visual Studio project
If your code folder contains a Visual Studio project, you can designate the project
as the startup item.
Set project as startup item
The Start button's text changes to reflect that the project is the startup item.
Project on Start button
Related content
Customize build and debug tasks
Open Folder projects for C++
CMake projects in C++
Writing code in the code and text editor
Additional resources
Documentation
Create projects & solutions - Visual Studio (Windows)
Create Visual Studio solutions and projects and use them to store artifacts,
including source code files, bitmaps, icons, and component and service references.
Use different build methods to build apps - Visual Studio (Windows)
Use the Visual Studio IDE build method, the MSBuild command-line tools build
method, or Azure Pipelines build method to build an application.
Introduction to projects and solutions - Visual Studio (Windows)
Explore the difference between projects and solutions that contain and organize
projects, and how to work with these items in Visual Studio.
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