50

I downloaded a Visual Studio project but I can't open it in my copy of Visual Studio 2010. Useless error message:

The project type is not supported by this installation.

What software do I need to open the project type? It doesn't say.

I actually went and read the .csproj file, it tells me it's project type

<ProjectTypeGuids>{786C830F-07A1-408B-BD7F-6EE04809D6DB};{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}</ProjectTypeGuids>

Am I meant to recognise what software I need from this random string? This is absolutely ludicrous.

Drew Noakes
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Colonel Panic
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  • Possible duplicate of [What is the significance of ProjectTypeGuids tag in the visual studio project file](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2911565/what-is-the-significance-of-projecttypeguids-tag-in-the-visual-studio-project-fi) – Lennart Jul 09 '18 at 08:56

3 Answers3

45

Here's a list of project type GUIDs:

  • 8BB2217D-0F2D-49D1-97BC-3654ED321F3B ASP.NET 5
  • 603C0E0B-DB56-11DC-BE95-000D561079B0 ASP.NET MVC 1
  • F85E285D-A4E0-4152-9332-AB1D724D3325 ASP.NET MVC 2
  • E53F8FEA-EAE0-44A6-8774-FFD645390401 ASP.NET MVC 3
  • E3E379DF-F4C6-4180-9B81-6769533ABE47 ASP.NET MVC 4
  • 349C5851-65DF-11DA-9384-00065B846F21 ASP.NET MVC 5 / Web Application
  • FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC C#
  • 9A19103F-16F7-4668-BE54-9A1E7A4F7556 C# (forces use of SDK project system)
  • 8BC9CEB8-8B4A-11D0-8D11-00A0C91BC942 C++
  • 13B669BE-BB05-4DDF-9536-439F39A36129 CPS barebones project
  • 88A30576-7583-4F75-8136-5EFD2C14ADFF CRM
  • 4C25E9B5-9FA6-436c-8E19-B395D2A65FAF CRM plugin
  • A9ACE9BB-CECE-4E62-9AA4-C7E7C5BD2124 Database
  • 4F174C21-8C12-11D0-8340-0000F80270F8 Database
  • C8D11400-126E-41CD-887F-60BD40844F9E Database
  • 3EA9E505-35AC-4774-B492-AD1749C4943A Deployment Cab
  • 06A35CCD-C46D-44D5-987B-CF40FF872267 Deployment Merge Module
  • 978C614F-708E-4E1A-B201-565925725DBA Deployment Setup
  • AB322303-2255-48EF-A496-5904EB18DA55 Deployment Smart Device Cab
  • F135691A-BF7E-435D-8960-F99683D2D49C Distributed System
  • BF6F8E12-879D-49E7-ADF0-5503146B24B8 Dynamics 2012 AX C# in AOT
  • 82B43B9B-A64C-4715-B499-D71E9CA2BD60 Extensibility
  • F2A71F9B-5D33-465A-A702-920D77279786 F#
  • 6EC3EE1D-3C4E-46DD-8F32-0CC8E7565705 F# (forces use of SDK project system)
  • 95DFC527-4DC1-495E-97D7-E94EE1F7140D IL project
  • FBB4BD86-BF63-432a-A6FB-6CF3A1288F83 InstallShield
  • E6FDF86B-F3D1-11D4-8576-0002A516ECE8 J#
  • 262852C6-CD72-467D-83FE-5EEB1973A190 JScript
  • 20D4826A-C6FA-45DB-90F4-C717570B9F32 Legacy (2003) Smart Device (C#)
  • CB4CE8C6-1BDB-4DC7-A4D3-65A1999772F8 Legacy (2003) Smart Device (VB.NET)
  • 581633EB-B896-402F-8E60-36F3DA191C85 LightSwitch Project
  • 8BB0C5E8-0616-4F60-8E55-A43933E57E9C LightSwitch Project
  • ECD6D718-D1CF-4119-97F3-97C25A0DFBF9 LightSwitch Project
  • b69e3092-b931-443c-abe7-7e7b65f2a37f Micro Framework
  • 66A2671D-8FB5-11D2-AA7E-00C04F688DDE Miscellaneous Files
  • 4B160523-D178-4405-B438-79FB67C8D499 Nomad
  • C1CDDADD-2546-481F-9697-4EA41081F2FC Office/SharePoint App
  • 786C830F-07A1-408B-BD7F-6EE04809D6DB Portable Class Library
  • 66A26720-8FB5-11D2-AA7E-00C04F688DDE Project Folders
  • D954291E-2A0B-460D-934E-DC6B0785DB48 Shared Project
  • 593B0543-81F6-4436-BA1E-4747859CAAE2 SharePoint (C#)
  • EC05E597-79D4-47f3-ADA0-324C4F7C7484 SharePoint (VB.NET)
  • F8810EC1-6754-47FC-A15F-DFABD2E3FA90 SharePoint Workflow
  • A1591282-1198-4647-A2B1-27E5FF5F6F3B Silverlight
  • 4D628B5B-2FBC-4AA6-8C16-197242AEB884 Smart Device (C#)
  • 68B1623D-7FB9-47D8-8664-7ECEA3297D4F Smart Device (VB.NET)
  • 2150E333-8FDC-42A3-9474-1A3956D46DE8 Solution Folder
  • BBD0F5D1-1CC4-42fd-BA4C-A96779C64378 Synergex
  • 3AC096D0-A1C2-E12C-1390-A8335801FDAB Test
  • A5A43C5B-DE2A-4C0C-9213-0A381AF9435A Universal Windows Class Library
  • 67294A52-A4F0-11D2-AA88-00C04F688DDE Unloaded Project
  • F184B08F-C81C-45F6-A57F-5ABD9991F28F VB.NET
  • 778DAE3C-4631-46EA-AA77-85C1314464D9 VB.NET (forces use of SDK project system)
  • C252FEB5-A946-4202-B1D4-9916A0590387 Visual Database Tools
  • 54435603-DBB4-11D2-8724-00A0C9A8B90C Visual Studio 2015 Installer Project Extension
  • A860303F-1F3F-4691-B57E-529FC101A107 Visual Studio Tools for Applications (VSTA)
  • BAA0C2D2-18E2-41B9-852F-F413020CAA33 Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO)
  • 2CFEAB61-6A3B-4EB8-B523-560B4BEEF521 Web Deployment
  • E24C65DC-7377-472B-9ABA-BC803B73C61A Web Site
  • 3D9AD99F-2412-4246-B90B-4EAA41C64699 Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)
  • 76F1466A-8B6D-4E39-A767-685A06062A39 Windows Phone 8/8.1 Blank/Hub/Webview App
  • C089C8C0-30E0-4E22-80C0-CE093F111A43 Windows Phone 8/8.1 App (C#)
  • DB03555F-0C8B-43BE-9FF9-57896B3C5E56 Windows Phone 8/8.1 App (VB.NET)
  • 60DC8134-EBA5-43B8-BCC9-BB4BC16C2548 Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
  • BC8A1FFA-BEE3-4634-8014-F334798102B3 Windows Store (Metro) Apps & Components
  • 930C7802-8A8C-48F9-8165-68863BCCD9DD WiX Setup
  • 14822709-B5A1-4724-98CA-57A101D1B079 Workflow (C#)
  • D59BE175-2ED0-4C54-BE3D-CDAA9F3214C8 Workflow (VB.NET)
  • 32F31D43-81CC-4C15-9DE6-3FC5453562B6 Workflow Foundation
  • EFBA0AD7-5A72-4C68-AF49-83D382785DCF Xamarin.Android / Mono for Android
  • 6BC8ED88-2882-458C-8E55-DFD12B67127B Xamarin.iOS / MonoTouch
  • F5B4F3BC-B597-4E2B-B552-EF5D8A32436F MonoTouch Binding
  • 6D335F3A-9D43-41b4-9D22-F6F17C4BE596 XNA (Windows)
  • 2DF5C3F4-5A5F-47a9-8E94-23B4456F55E2 XNA (XBox)
  • D399B71A-8929-442a-A9AC-8BEC78BB2433 XNA (Zune)

Some of these are given different names under different versions of Visual Studio, so if you don't see an exact name match, look for a similar or related name.

Drew Noakes
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    Thanks that you've ordered the SDK style project id. – walterlv Jul 24 '19 at 03:04
  • Is there a Microsoft reference for these values? I can't find documentation for any of this. Where does this info come from? I'm guessing this is internal info that we just have to be lucky enough to hear from a Microsoft engineer. – Triynko Mar 17 '20 at 05:38
  • It looks like `D954291E-2A0B-460D-934E-DC6B0785DB48` is specified twice. Once as `Shared Project` and another time as `Windows Store App Universal` – Dennis van der Schagt May 15 '23 at 09:55
  • You're right. I've removed the _Windows Store App Universal_ entry as I don't believe it's correct. – Drew Noakes Jun 01 '23 at 10:38
39

I found a site that lists some known project type GUIDs for Visual Studio 2008.

  • FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC looks like a Windows C# project (probably a Class Library project?)
  • 786C830F-07A1-408B-BD7F-6EE04809D6DB appears to be a Portable Library project

I agree that it's crazy to expect a developer to understand the project type represented by a GUID but whoever supplied the code you downloaded could have indicated what was required to build it!

Wai Ha Lee
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dariom
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    I found one more very good consolidated documentation of project type guids used by Visual Studio team. Hope this helps! http://www.codeproject.com/Reference/720512/List-of-Visual-Studio-Project-Type-GUIDs?msg=4996054#xx4996054xx – RBT Feb 06 '15 at 07:05
  • There are used by cloud engineers all the time in CI/CD processes – Nick Turner Jan 07 '22 at 13:48
15

Visual Studio projects system architecture uses GUIDs to identifiy the type of the project. You could find online lists like these below:

Such GUIDs allows the Visual Studio to recognize what type of project user opened and use appropriate tools and editors. To uderstand better what do I mean - read this post for example: Opening an ASP.NET MVC project without having ASP.NET MVC installed: The project type is not supported by this installation

Dmitry Pavlov
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  • Where do these definitions come from? Are we really supposed to believe non-Microsoft, obscure web sites reverse engineered these values themselves? These sites provide no references. Are we supposed to just believe their values? – Triynko Mar 17 '20 at 05:35
  • Sort of. Project Type GUID is a unique key used in registry to identify specific project type. Visual Studio keeps all stuff (editors, projects, menu items, tools, etc. ) in system registry. This IDE load's everything from there. Really interesting architecture solution IMHO. So those GUIDs are known ones for standard project types. – Dmitry Pavlov Mar 17 '20 at 20:02
  • If anyone creates a custom extensibility package for VS with [custom project type inside](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/extensibility/extending-projects) (e.g. you created project type for IDK - ActionScript language) and you used some GUIDs for your package, project type, language services and so on. Those GUIDs are added to registry when you install your package (MSI or via VSIX package, etc). And When IDE loads it picks your custom project up and it is involved to Add New Project dialog, and far and so on . – Dmitry Pavlov Mar 17 '20 at 20:02